STARKVILLE — Determining the best writer in Debbie Vanderford’s fifth grade class at Henderson Elementary School is not an easy assignment. She has a room full of soon-to-be published poets and a handful of writers whose voices soon will be heard over the radio, including Lazyane Nichols.
School started last fall with no indication Nichols would become one of the most enthusiastic writers in her class.
“Lazyane was a reluctant writer; let’s put it that way,” Vanderford said. “He didn’t seem to show much interest at first.”
In October, 20 of Vanderford’s students will have their work published in the 2012 edition of “Young American Poetry Digest,” including Nichols, whose face still lights up, when he recalls the day he was notified his poems had been selected for publication.
“They were like, “You’re going to get your poem put in a book!” Nichols said, a broad smile spreading across his face. “That only made me want to keep writing more.”
Joining Nichols as published poets are classmates Marcuevas Guido, Jalen Perkins, Sierra Sykes, Cameron Bell, Mysheria Patterson, Aniya Montgomery, Kristopher Jones, Jordan Norman, Jartavious Guyton, Alyssa Jones, Chareda Boykins, Raelyn Rosamond, Wyatt Logan, Kendall French, Saul Park, Helen Peng, Mazeallus Brown, Lily Grado, Kaitlyn Averion and Daniel Nicholson.
Peng, Brown, Grado, Averion and Nicholson also were chosen to record their personal stories on “Rural Voices,” a Mississippi Public Broadcasting program produced by the Mississippi Writing/Thinking Institute at Mississippi State University.
Grado said writing gives her a sense of being in control.
“I just like to let my imagination run free,” Grado said. “It’s like I am the boss of the story and I get to decide how everything goes.”
For her Rural Voices piece, Grado wrote about her Russian heritage.
“I think they are dead,” she said of her ancestors. “When I was little, I was sick and they couldn’t take care of me, so my parents adopted me and brought me here. I thought that was interesting.”
For Peng, who has been playing violin since age 6, writing is another outlet for her creativity.
“It was really cool to go into the studio and see all the different types of machines they use to put people on the radio,” Peng said.” “I practiced every day for a whole week, so that I would be able to read it without stopping when I went to the studio, but I was still pretty nervous when I had to read it.”
Vanderford, who has taught at Henderson since 1996, has been teaching reading and language arts for 22 years. She believes the process of writing enhances the future of all children, whether they want to play pro football, like Nichols, or be a veterinarian, like Peng.
“I do believe it helps them going forward,” Vanderford said. “You see it in their vocabulary and the expressive language they are able to use. For me, the payoff is at the end of a long school year, they still want to write.
“Every time I turn around, he’s there saying, ‘When are we going to write again?'” Vanderford, laughing, added of Nichols.
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