Palm Desert Students Compete In Poetry Contest

About 50 students at put their poetry skills to the test Friday as part of a national recitation competition.

The Poetry Out Loud contest -- put on in front of 400 8th grade students and some parents -- was held from 8:30 to 10 a.m at the middle school.

The winners were:

• 1st place- Caitlin Mitry ($100)
• 2nd place- Tyler Shelley ($50)
• 3rd place- Skyla Wilson ($25)

The prize money was donated by the school's Parent Teacher Organization.

The competition encourages the students to learn about poetry through memorization and recitation. The goal of the program is to help youngsters master public speaking skills and build self-confidence, according to the organization's website.

All 8th grade students from the school read or recited poetry from the Poetryoutloud.org anthology in their classroom last week, and 50 students competed Friday, according to Nanette Davis-Kirchhevel, an 8th grade humanities teacher.

"We had three outside judges -- teachers from local elementary schools and PDHS along with one PDCMS teacher to score for accuracy on the recitation portion, as well as two 8th grade PDCMS math teachers to tally scores,'' she said.