Tippecanoe Middle School’s Power of the Pen teams competed at the District Power of the Pen competition at Greenville Middle School earlier this month competing with eighteen schools.
The seventh grade team took first place, with individual honors going to Emily Doll: first place, Jesse Hemmelgarn: third place, Alisha Bhaqwat: sixth place, and Valerie Picket: fifteenth place. In addition, writers competed in three rounds, and one of Jesse Hemmelgarn’s pieces was selected as the best at the tournament, and another one of her pieces was runner-up for a different round.
Eight Tipp students qualified to compete at the Regional Power of the Pen tournament March 26 in Minster. They are: seventh-graders; Alisha Bhaqwat, Emily Doll, Jesse Hemmelgarn, Valerie Pickett, and Riley Powers. The team is coached by Karen Jackson. Eighth-graders are Erika Brownlee, Katie Bachey, and Sam Roberts. The team is coached by Amy Armentrout.
Power of the Pen is a statewide comprehensive writing program that is designed to strengthen the voice of young writers and encourage schools to strengthen their writing programs. The program provides a common ground for Ohio teachers to interact and share ideas.
Power of the Pen gives students an opportunity to write at meets, where their work is critiqued by a panel of judges. Though it is a competition, the program focuses on giving students an opportunity to write. At meets, students give written responses to “prompts,” or specific writing topics. One of the prompts for the seventh grade District was “Describe your worst fear.” For the eighth grade District a prompt was “What’s it like to be in-between?”
