Every year each English class in semester one and two write and present a self-written slam poem or rant and student(s) from each English class is chosen to perform in front of the school and represent their class and themselves, they are judged by the judges and given a score out of five based on how well they deliver their chosen style of spoken word is. This year, oral storytelling has been presented as a new option for students to pick, however, they will not be judged.

The judge’s table

“Oral story is one of the principles of the first nation of story learning, it has been passed down generation to generation. It is a way of educating, a way to pass down knowledge. It takes a lot of skill to tell a good story, I realized that if I combine the two it would be fun and educating to hear other’s stories,” said Mrs. Sheri Thomasen, a Socials and English teacher at Riverside.

Spencer Hurst, a grade 10 student at Riverside Secondary provided a great example of this; he performed a story about how he killed a raccoon. Although this may seem dark at first, it was very entertaining as there was plenty of comedy to his story.

The MC of the 11’s and 12’s, Jillian Christmas
Claire Noble and Jenna Grant, The hosts for the 9’s and 10’s

On Thursday, November 29 the grade nine’s and ten’s who were chosen to present for their grade performed in front of the school in both block C and D. The MC’s were grade 11’s Claire Noble and Jenna Grant. On November 30, the eleven and twelve’s had their turn to perform in the school cafeteria in block C and D. The MC’s name for the event was Jillian Christmas from Vancouver Poetry House, that the school hired to support local poets.

 

The winners of this year’s spoken word festival are:
Grade 9:
 1st place – Maddox Colligan, “Stress and Anxiety”
2nd place – Ara Christie, “Normal”
Grade 10:
Tied for 1st place – Kelsey Steward, Didi Dimitrova, Ella Gasper,
“Stereotypes”, – Lauren Gunster, Maya Pawlet, “Dear Creators of a Bad Day”
Grade 11:
1st place – Evelina Borvanova, “Crush”
2nd place – Jayden Bawden, “To my Future Daughter”
Grade 12: 1st place – Alyssa Wahl, “Dear Aunt”
2nd place – Sama Salehi, “Salt”

Congratulations to all those who won and participated in the spoken word festival this year! We are all proud of you.