Colegio Bolívar Poetry Festival

The last letter may be viewed here in Word.

For more information, call (555-2039) or email Carla Ravassa, Principal of Preprimary at Colegio Bolivar (cravassa@colegiobolivar.edu.co) OR see the letter here.

Please review our Reminders for participants and schools

The introductory letter emailed on November 15 and faxed on November 18.

The 39^th Annual Bilingual Schools Poetry Festival

November 16, 2011

I hope that everyone had a good start to the year.  The 39^th annual Bilingual Schools Poetry Festival is right around the corner.   As always, if anyone has suggestions, questions, or comments, please feel free to email or call.  Please see below for specifics on the festival; it’s always good to review the parameters.

Please use the Poetry Festival web page for ALL your entries and information about the Poetry Festival.  If you have problems either accessing the site OR submitting your entries, please let me know.  In addition to the forms for your participants, you can check out program’s from last year’s Festival (and this year’s, once it’s done) plus, there’s a page of Poetry Links put together just for students and teachers – Check it out!

The dates for this year’s Festival are

·        Preprimary – 6 to 7 years old - 1st Grade Thursday, February 16, 9:00 to 11:30

·        Participants should arrive by 8:45 / Show starts at 9:00

·        This event will be coordinated directly through the Preprimary office at Colegio Bolivar - for more information, call (555-2039) or email Carla Ravassa, Principal of Preprimary at Colegio Bolivar (cravassa@colegiobolivar.edu.co)

·        Primary - 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grades Thursday, February 16

·        Participants should arrive by 6:30pm / Show Starts at 7:00

·        Lower Secondary - 6th, 7th and 8th Grades Wednesday, February 22

·        Participants should arrive by 6:30pm / Show Starts at 7:00

·        Upper Secondary - 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Grades Thursday, February 23

·        Participants should arrive by 6:30pm / Show Starts at 7:00

Here are some reminders for this year’s Festival:

1.       Registration

§  You may not include more students from one age level to make up for fewer in another.

§  Please include the name of the sponsor with each participant’s name.

§  Please do not allow poems more than 30 lines long.

2.       Presentation

§  Poems should be memorized and polished for the Festival.

§  We assume that ALL POEMS, both published and non-published, have undergone a process of revision and review by sponsoring adults.  We do not want to limit or impinge upon any one’s freedom of expression here, but we should all keep in mind that the Poetry Festival is for families, and more than once over the years, we have received poetry which was in questionable taste for the event.  I will not censure poetry, again assuming that any I receive has been carefully chosen.

§  Please discuss with your students what may or may not be considered appropriate dress for the event.

3.       Original Poetry

§  Original Poetry means that the poem was written by the student OR a classmate.  A teacher's original work should not be read as original poetry in the Festival.  (A teacher's original work may, however, be used in one of the other categories.)

§  Please proofread the original poetry before it is submitted.

§  Remember to include the original poetry from your school that will be presented on the night of the Festival with your Entrance Form to be included with the program.  There’s a place on the web page for this.

§  Please double-check the validity of original poems.  We have had quite a few “questionable poems” over the years!

4.       Group and Dramatic Poetry

§  Remember that Group Poetry should involve anywhere from 2 to 10 students, reciting poems of not more than 30 lines.  The poem should be dramatized vocally, much like a chorus uses voices to achieve a specific effect.  The poem should not be said in unison, and there should be NO PROPS, COSTUMES OR SPECIAL EFFECTS.

§  Dramatic Poetry, on the other hand, is poetry that is meant to be dramatized, and here you can do what you want, by including props, costumes, special effects, etc.   The sky’s the limit!  Have fun!

FINALLY, we will need adult speakers for all four nights of the Festival; please let me know if you or someone from your school is interested.

See you on the 16^th!

Thomas David Rompf

Colegio Bolivar

Work: 555-2039, ext 243                  

Home: 339-5633