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REGION 15 WRITERS HONORED FOR ESSAYS AND POETRY Students Use Writing Conference to Hone SkillsMarch 23, 2004, Middlebury/Southbury—Two Region 15 students from Pomperaug High School were recognized this month for their written essays and poetry. Rebecca Schneider, a senior at Pomperaug High School received a Gold Key writing award in the Region At Large program of The Scholastic Writing Awards of 2004. PHS junior Krystelle Cino submitted a poem entitled “The Hero That’s Inside” to the Connecticut Commission on Children. Miss Cino’s poem, excerpted here, was displayed in the gallery corridor connecting the Connecticut State Capitol and the Legislative Office Building. The Hero That’s Inside (excerpt) Going against what is said to be true, And listening to the inner you, A “Hero” is a person that knows the truth inside, They are leaders and mentors who try their best to guide.
The question isn’t who they are and what they do and why, A “Hero” is merely someone who isn’t afraid to try. (Krystelle Cino, Pomperaug High School) Rebecca Schneider submitted six essays to The Scholastic Writing Awards; 271 works were selected from more than 5,000 essays. A panel of distinguished artists, writers, arts professionals and educators from major universities, judged the Region At Large writing entries and the selection process was very competitive. “Complain as you may about their cruelty and callousness, words are mighty,” said Miss Schneider, writing an introduction to her essays. “Their voices are as firm and unmoving as their insensibility, and they hold within them the power to transform the way we see the world and ourselves. For this reason, I've always found writing to be more of a logic game than an art. With ‘just words,’ I must transcend ordinary language altogether, transforming marks on a page into something visceral and deeply human. Instead of telling them ‘joy’ or ‘fear,’ I have to force recognition, to create a world in which an audience can experience these emotions for themselves.” Both Rebecca Schneider and Krystelle Cino are enrolled in the Writing Conference Block where they work one-on-one with a teacher to further develop their writing skills. What occurs during the conference block depends on the stage of the writing process in which the student is operating. Miss Schneider and Miss Cino meet with their teacher to discuss the main ideas and concepts associated with the assignment, facilitate logical construction of ideas, review completed drafts and receive feedback, and revise the writing assignment in order to improve the final product. “Through individual instructional time, a teacher can address specific areas of weakness or expand upon distinct areas of strength in a student’s writing. The writing that evolves from such a personalized instruction is amazing, as these pieces by Rebecca and Krystelle surely indicate,” said Kristen DellaVolpe, director of the English department at Pomperaug High School.
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