Four students have poems selected for national book
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Whale Cove (May 30/01) - The writing talents of students at Inuglak school in Whale Cove are getting exposure, again.
What started out as a class project being used by Grade 7-8 teacher Karen Gallant to motivate her students to write more ended up with four students having their poems included in A Book of Memories published by the Poetry Institute of Canada.
"I saw an advertisement for this after the fact and tore it off the wall on my way out of the building at Christmas time," says Gallant.
"I figured we might as well give it a try, so I sent all the poems in and they selected four of the poems from the class for the book."
The poems selected were written by Grade 7 students Germaine Ekwalak and Pamela Arualak and Grade 6 students Laura Uluadluak and Lazarus Teenar.
A Book of Memories is currently in the publication process and Inuglak school has already placed an order for 20 copies which will be used as a teaching aid for next year's students.
Three of the four students selected (Uluadluak, Teenar and Ekwalak) are no strangers to literary success.
They were also involved with the Lonely Inukshuk, which earned national acclaim as the overall winner in the 1999 edition of the Create a Book Contest.
Gallant says although the poetry was written around Christmas, a Thanksgiving theme was used for the project.
"I always try to keep an upbeat theme in the classroom to try and motivate my students.
"Poetry was the topic I selected because not only is it something they have to do, but the basic recipe for poetry works well with the kids.
"Poetry is fun for my students because there's less words and it gives them the chance to be more creative."
