Woodburn Independent Online

WHS student earns state poetry bid

• By: Lindsay Keefer  
• Published: 3/1/2010 9:14:55 AM

Photo By: Lindsay KeeferPoetry Out Loud
Obdulia Valle, a junior at Woodburn Arts and Communications Academy, will represent the school at the state competition for Poetry Out Loud March 12 and 13 in Salem. She was chosen by a panel of judges after reciting “I Am” by John Clare and “Let It Be Forgotten” by Sara Teasdale.

WOODBURN — Junior Obdulia Valle will represent Woodburn High School at the Poetry Out Loud state competition in March.
 
The competition, which is from March 12 to 13 at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, showcases students representing 25 high schools through poetry recitation.
 
Five classes at Woodburn Arts and Communications Academy performed preliminary rounds within the classroom, each sending two students to the school’s competition Feb. 17. But Valle was not in any of the participating classes.
 
“IB (International Baccalaureate) … is a very fast-paced curriculum, so we didn’t have enough time to fit it in there,” language arts teacher Mindy Brooks said. “Obdulia is the only one of my students who chose to do that from the IB class.”
 
“I volunteered to do it,” Valle added. “I just wanted to do it because I wanted to be on stage.”
 
Valle said she was surprised she did so well.
 
“I just told Ms. Brooks the other day I want to join,” she said. “I didn’t even hear the other contestants until in the morning when we practiced together.”
 
None of the participants, each of whom had to recite two poems, are seniors.
 
“We have a lot of up and coming students,” Brooks said, adding that last year’s state representative was in 12th grade.
 
The two poems Valle recited were “I Am” by John Clare and “Let It Be Forgotten” by Sara Teasdale. Students could choose from a list provided by Poetry Out Loud.
 
“(Valle) has a very strong voice,” said Brooks. “She has a very strong physical presence. You see her get into character, per se. I think the voice and articulation and dramatization were really just phenomenal.”
 
Students are judged on physical presence, voice and articulation, appropriateness of dramatization, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding and overall performance.
 
The judges were David House, a local poet, Jennifer Traeger, the high school’s Talented and Gifted (TAG) program specialist and Kathy Campobasso, project director of the Oregon Small Schools Initiative.
 
Sophomore Jordan Shepherd placed third and freshman Sandra Alonzo placed second.
This is the third year WACA is participating in the contest, which has seen its two previous representatives win second place in the state.
 
In addition to winning a $200 scholarship and $500 for the school library’s poetry collection, the state champion will receive an all-expenses-paid trip, with a chaperone, to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national finals, April 25-27.
 
For more information on Poetry Out Loud, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.

  (log in to rate)