Calling all poets!  April is National Poetry Month, and the English Department will be celebrating with a collection and display of students’ original poems, as well as numerous readings in classes and morning meetings. 

Students and teachers are encouraged to share their original works or verse from their favorite poets.  This initative was kicked off by one of our Grade 11 students, who read one of her original pieces of poetry in a morning meeting after Spring Break.  Students are encouraged to speak with their English teachers if interested in reading poems at these morning meetings.  And, of course, the highlight of Poetry Month will be a very special Poetry Slam that will take place on the third Thursday of the month (April 19).  Make plans to join us as we celebrate the joy of language and poetry (while enjoying a snack or two) at 10:30 in the Haugen Hall atrium.

“Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” — Thomas Gray

A Middle School student receives some advice and tips for her writing from an Upper School student.

The English Department has recently started an initiative by which students in Upper School classes visit the Middle School to assist younger students with their writing.  Grade 9 students, for instance, recently visited Grade 6 to read, respond to, and offer useful feedback for the students’ personal fiction pieces.  The Upper School contingent enjoyed playing the role of mentors tothe younger students, and the Middle School students benefited from the feedback that their visitors provided.
Staten Island Academy is a community of strong readers and writers, and such initiaitives will undoubtedly foster and enrich the writing experience and create a model for interdivisional sharing and learning.

This year the English Department has spearheaded an initiative to have all Grade 10 students complete a research paper.  Departing from the traditional requirement of a humanities-based topic about an author or historical event or figure, students have each selected a faculty mentor to guide them through the process of researching and writing about a topic of their own choosing.  The Grade 10 students have selected a startling variety of topics, including the health benefits of dancing, the effects of playing a musical instrument on a child’s brain development, the effects of the burgeoning Nomura’s jellyfish population, continued sexism in sports, and the cultural and personal significance of ceramics.

Students spent the first semester choosing a topic, selecting mentors knowledgeable in their fields of inquiry, and creating and fine tuning their thesis statements.  The third marking period has been spent writing first drafts, and the final quarter will find students editing and writing their final drafts.  Upon completion of their papers in the spring, the students will have a “publishing party,” and their final drafts will be electronically saved and archived in the school’s library.

The ability of students to formulate a thesis that is interesting to them and to a wider audience is invaluable, and the benefits of conducting research and deeply immersing themselves in a topic should prove useful to the students during their final two Upper School years, as well as their college careers.

A number of writing opportunities have been posted on the bulletin board outside the English office on the bottom floor of Kearns Hall.  Students can submit their creative writing pieces, short stories, poems, and speeches to a number of contests, many of which are offering cash prizes and/or scholarships.  Also posted are summer opportunities for students who are looking to hone their reading, writing, and expressive skills.  If any student is interested in learning more about these exciting opportunities, please contact Mr. Mazella in person or via email.

On Sunday, January 29 twenty Grade 10 students accompanied Mrs. Kent-Stoll to the Staten Island Community Charter School, where they participated in a lively community discussion about race issues and the use of language and dialect in Mark Twain’s works, including classics such as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.  An offering of the Staten Island OutLOUD Big Read/Tom Sawyer series, the discussion was enlivened and facilitated by the perspectives and insights of the Grade 10 students. Through their own work and discussions in the classroom, the students who attended the program were well-versed in the language and themes of the work, as well as the life and times of Twain.  Enlightening and educational, the discussion allowed the students to apply their skills and knowledge and share their viewpoints with the greater community.
Reporting on the OutLOUD program, the March 5th edition of The New Yorker quoted Mrs. Kent Stoll, who explained her students’ sensitive dealings with one particular word that, for better or worse, has inflitrated American mainstream culture: “Kent-Stoll said that she lets her students say the word or skip over it, as they prefer, when they read Twain out loud.  ‘We’re never supposed to stop feeling uncomfortable about the word, and that’s O.K.,’ she said.”

February

14 — Speech in morning meeting (Grade 10)

16 — Speech in morning meeting (Grade 10)

19 — Author Amy Tan’s birthday

23 — Speech in morning meeting (Grade 10) / POETRY SLAM during break! (Upper School)

26 — Author Victor Hugo’s birthday

27 — Speech in morning meeting (Grade 10) / poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s birthday

29 — Poetry readings / soliloquies in morning meeting (Grades 11 & 12)

March

2 — Speech in morning meeting (Grade 10) / Author Theodore Seuss Geisel’s (Dr. Seuss’s) birthday

6 — Speech in morning meeting (Grade 10) / poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s birthday

8 — Speech in morning meeting (Grade 10)

12 — Speech in morning meeting (Grade 10)

14 — Speech in morning meeting (Grade 10)

15 — Shakespeare elective presentation (Grades 11 & 12)