Babylon High Writers Earn National Acclaim

As part of their curriculum, Babylon High School 10th-grade honors English students have been learning about personal narratives and memoirs throughout this year.

With the help of teacher Lisa Drance, the classes have been identifying the differences between the two genres – noting that memoirs are more reflective and hold symbolic meaning, while personal narratives contain a true beginning, middle and end – as well as focusing on the importance of a strong lead, figurative language and imagery.

As part of their writing workshop, the students had the chance to put their lessons into action and created original works based on one of these categories. In an effort to provide authentic learning opportunities about the publishing process and to enable the students to become involved in the larger writing community, the classes were encouraged to submit their completed pieces to a number of online and print outlets.

Submissions by Christina Krisberg and Victoria Buonagura were selected and featured on Teen Ink, the National Council of Teachers of English online publication. Christina’s piece, “Early Morning Hours” received high scores from readers, was given the Editors’ Choice award and featured on the front page of the website’s memoirs section. Victoria’s piece “The Distance Between Us” was designated with an Editors’ Choice award and also featured on the homepage of the site’s College Essay section.

Photo provided by the Babylon School District