The Southwest Voice

All > Schools
Literature comes to life at Oral Language Festival
Topics:
Anonymous user Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:35:57 PST
Viewed 299 times
0 responses 0 comments Hart Elementary School’s Matthew Cline and David Newton chose the right literature to win at the 36th annual Kern County Oral Language Festival held Jan. 20 at Standard School District Educational Services Center.
As it turns out, their serious literary choice epitomized them. It was about a football player who would not give up.  After failing to place in the same competition last year, Cline and Newton tried again this year, and it paid off.
“Even if we had not won again, just finding this piece, ‘What Happened,’ got me more active at school and helped me make new friends I didn’t know before,” Newton said.
“Yes, and it helped me do more things I never knew I could do, like winning this trophy,” Cline added.
Both students proved to be excellent examples of what hard work and practice can achieve in this annual competition split between students in grades four to six and seven to eight.
What started out as an estimated pool of more than 50,000 Kern County students was pared down in school and district competitions to the approximately 350 students in grades four to eight, from 70 public and private schools that competed at the county championships.
Each performance had to be an original interpretation of a literary work. The literature used had to be a published work available to all students.
Talents could be displayed in one of five categories, including serious solo, serious duo,  humorous solo,  humorous duo or verse choir interpretations.
“Giving an oral presentation is a difficult and commendable task. Each student presenting today can be proud of this accomplishment,” said event organizer Teresa Twisselman.
Awards to fourth- through sixth-grade finalists were presented in the Standard School Auditorium following the completion of the morning competition.
Afterward, first-place winners delivered encore performances.
Southwest finalists included:
Interpretation serious solo, grades four to six: First place, Tiffany Yeh of Stockdale Elementary School.
Interpretation serious duo, grades four to six: First place, Matthew Cline and David Newton of Hart Elementary School.
Interpretation humorous solo, grades four to six: First place, Chance Johnsen of St. John’s Lutheran School; third place, Jake Wattenbarger of Hart Elementary School.
Interpretation humorous duo, grades four to six: Second place, Hafsa Shurbaji and Yasmine Suleiman of Reagan Elementary School; third place, Connor Brady and Vito Hamey of Buena Vista Elementary School.
Verse choir, grades four to six: First place, Madison Anderholt, Riley Fackler, Jake Fortnum, Andrew Heideman, Sydney Hudson, Eden Schmoll, Jennifer Varner and Andrew Wilburn of St. John’s Lutheran School; second place, Mary Blackburn, Elizabeth Diaz, Baylie Duncan, Jillian Froehlich, Morgan Mize, Jane Roy, and Kelcy Showers of Reagan Elementary School.
First place winners in grades seven and eight also presented encore performances after being presented their awards in the afternoon session. First-, second- and third-place finalists were:
Interpretation serious solo, grades seven and eight: First place,  Lauren Demos of  Warren Junior High School; third place, Alex Knaak of  Thompson Junior High School.
Interpretation serious duo, grades seven and eight: Third place, Cynthia Huang and Alicia Mathur of Warren Junior High School.

Send to a Friend

Report a Violation