Dresden Elementary School students wrapped up an extended writing program with a Literacy Arts Celebration held at the school Thursday, April 27.
The afternoon event saw students either reading their own compositions or having their compositions read aloud by designated readers. Some of the readings were accompanied by improvised performances.
The students were coached by Dresden poet and teacher Mark Melnicove. Beginning in January, Melnicove served as writer-in-residence, meeting with the students once a week. On Thursdays, Melnicove spent dedicated time with each grade level: 15-minute and 30-minute blocks for the pre-K and K-2 grade students respectively and 45 minutes each for grades 3-5.
“I didn’t start with the students until January and then I had a schedule where I met with all the grades,” Melnicove said. “The teachers were incredibly supportive and the students really got into it because we were doing personal writing and they loved to tell their stories.”
Melnicove plans to compile the student compositions into an anthology to give to the student authors at the end of the school year.
The literacy program was coordinated by art teacher Betsy Hunt, supported by music teacher Stephen Piwowarski. Piwowarski composed an original song for the event, which the assembled student and parents sang together before the readings.
“I thought it was really authentic,” Piwowarski said of the students’ writing. “The work the students did was not a representation of our hopes for them. It was a representation of their hopes for themselves.”
The Dresden Literacy Arts Celebration and the writer-in-residence program were funded by the David B. Kenyon Fund for the Enrichment of Art and Music. Founded in 1980 and named for the late Dresden resident, the fund sponsors art programs and concerts at the school and the community.
