'Park Ranger' Plainview Student Wins National Writing Contest

The Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District is proud to announce H.B. Mattlin Middle School sixth-grade student Michael Detres was recently selected as a winner of a national writing contest sponsored by Scholastic’s Storyworks Magazine. Michael is one of only ten winners nationwide.

The competition, “Write to Win: Mt. Saint Helens,” challenged students to pretend they were a park ranger at Mount Saint Helens today and to write a letter warning visitors that volcanoes are unpredictable.

Michael’s writing piece was inspired by a classroom project in Michael’s sixth-grade English-Language Arts class. Teacher Carolyn Loiacono brought this experience to Michael’s class, aiming to teach students about the process of writing and editing a nonfiction story. As part of the lesson, students analyzed a nonfiction article, “Mountain of Fire: The Eruption of Mount St. Helens,” by Lauren Tarshis.

To acknowledge Michael being chosen as a winner of the national competition, Storyworks Magazine associate editor Tash Kouri sent him a congratulatory letter along with a personalized copy of Patricia Lauber’s book, Volcano.

Photo: Michael Detres, a Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District H.B. Mattlin Middle School student in teacher Carolyn Loiacono’s class, was recently selected as one of ten total winners of a national writing competition sponsored by Scholastic’s “Storyworks Magazine.” The writing piece Michael submitted was inspired by a lesson in his sixth-grade English-Language Arts class, which focused on the process that goes into researching, writing and editing a nonfiction story.