Power of the Pen results

The following are 5-8 grade language arts Power of the Pen competition results:

Power of the Pen

Birchwood School has participated in this writing competition since its inception in the 1980s. Designed for seventh and eighth grade students to foster creative writing, 500 schools with over 7500 students from Ohio are involved yearly. Each registered school can send a team of six members for each grade and vie for individual and team trophies. It is "an exclusive interscholastic competition using many features which make interscholastic athletics so appealing among young students. …What is normally regarded as a private activity—writing—is turned into a competitive team effort." At each level, students write three pieces to respond to prompts not known in advance. In a forty-five minute period, students attempt to develop plot, character, and the elements of a short short story in a manner that is both original and creative. Because of classroom size, Birchwood has not been able to send full teams until the last few years and have been proudly displaying our team trophies in our hallway.

District Results

This year on February 2, Birchwood seventh and eighth graders joined twenty-four other area schools to compete in the district tournament. Our creative writers fared well.

Team Competition

Eighth Graders – Third place

Sahar A, George B, Shulamite C, Ani D, Stuart F, and Sarah L

Seventh Graders – Fourth place

Jacob B, Serena C, Jacob D, Sam J, Ilona K, and Thomas W

Individual Competition

Eighth Graders

Shulamite C, eleventh place, “Best of Rounds” award

Seventh Gaders

Ilona K, third place

Thomas W, eleventh place

Regional Results

Competing against more than forty schools at the regional level on March 1 at Wiley Middle High School are the following regional qualifiers:

Eighth Graders – Second Place

Sahar A, George B, Shulamite C, Anirudh D, Stuart F, and Sarah L

Seventh Graders

Jacob B, Jacob D, Sam J, Ilona K, and Thomas W

A big thank you to Mrs. Kufahl who devoted her Saturday to help judge in the competition.

State Qualifiers

Congratulations to Jacob D, Ilona K, and Thomas W who will compete at the state Power of the Pen in Wooster College on April 23, Friday.