MINGLING WITH THE DISTRICT'S YOUNG POET WANNABES

27th APRIL 2019 ~ Another competition was held for English at district level. SMK IJ Convent hosted the Poetry Recitation Competition for this year and 21 school took part this time.

There were two sections for this competition - the prepared poem where contestant had to recite a 5-minute poem, and the impromptu session where the students were given the theme on the spot, and they had to prepare the poem in 20 minutes and then recite it on stage.

SDJ's representatives

While waiting for the results, the Convent Choir sang two songs during the intermission: "Heal the World" and "You Raise Me Up" and they sang them beautifully.

The Convent girls emerged as the winners. Unfortunately for my boys, they did not get into the top five places even though the audience seemed to enjoy their recitation and gave them loud applause after both performances. Guess being popular would influence the judges' verdict. I was anyway glad that my students had done well for the competition and they had worked really hard and I still have to congratulate them. Maybe we should try again next time.

JUDGING STATE LEVEL POETRY RECITATION COMPETITION

I was at SMK Laksmana, Kota Tinggi, to judge a Poetry Recitation Competition for state level. Other than Poetry Recitation, there were also other events going on like Choral Speaking, Public Speaking, Scrabble and Debate while Drama Competition was held yesterday.

The verdict for the competition was ready by 1:30 p.m. There was a closing ceremony at 2:00 p.m. but a kind soul managed to "smuggle" out the cert and goodie bag for me and three more people so we did not have to wait for the session. May God repay the lady's kindness.

  

a friend from UPM TESL group, Ms.Norazlina

my ex-co-chief for SPM marking group, Mr.Soh

It was the first time Poetry Recitation Competition was done this year so this might continue next year. If you wonder, how the competition was carried out, here are some notes you might find useful:

1. It was only for lower secondary students.

2. A team should comprise of 2 students.

3. There are 2 sections: prepared poem (7 minutes) and impromptu poem.(3 minutes), similar to public speaking.

4. No props and music are allowed.

So now students have more opportunity to take part in competitions for English. However, I personally think, only the proficient and good ones will benefit when they are put in a situation where they have to write a poem and present it to the audience in such a short while. We should have less stressful activities and competitions for the weaker ones to take part so as to make learning the language more fun and meaningful.