By Nev Rathbun ’26
Three hundred and ninety-two students, 19 languages, and one Zoom room constituted the Connecticut Council of Language Teachers (COLT) Poetry Recitation Contest on March 27. Every year, students from all over Connecticut come together to celebrate their achievements in different language levels and recite the poems they had practiced for months. This year, 22 Choate students competed in the contest.
Spanish teacher and Choate’s veteran coordinator Mrs. Patricia Antunez was in charge of communicating with other teachers and administrators of schools that participated in the contest. “Some schools have a limit to the number of students they allow to enter, because the contest was in-person from the pandemic up until now, [whereas in] the last three or four years, it’s been virtual,” Mrs. Antunez explained. Organizing an online, state-wide competition was no small feat. “Choate actually hosted it in the past, and it was a huge undertaking … They made the competition a little smaller with the virtual side of things,” she said.
Each year during the winter term, students taking language courses recited a poem from a list that COLT provided based on language proficiency for the selection process. They practiced their poem for several months leading up to the competition, allowing them to memorize the poem and master their delivery. Students first recited their poems to their language class, and then teachers nominated students who demonstrated excellent recitations to represent Choate in the state-wide competition.
Ava McClatchie ’24, who hasplaced first at her level of Chinese for three years in a row, was inspired by her Chinese teacher, Dr. Carol Chen-Lin, to participate. “Dr. Chen-Lin is incredibly supportive and really encouraging in terms of getting students to participate in outside-of-the-classroom language experiences,” she said. McClatchie also described some of her challenges in memorizing her poem. “The thing that’s the hardest for me is making sure that the meaning is coming across, because there’s a really big difference between memorizing words and repeating sounds versus being able to actually articulate the meaning of a poem,” she said.
Zaki Shamsi ’26, a first-place winner in the 200-level Arabic poetry section, shared the importance of understanding the historical and cultural significance of poems. “A lot of poetry, especially from the Middle East, relates specifically to aspects of that culture. There’s a lot of historical significance and connection to the region the poetry came from.”
The CT COLT Poetry Recitation Contest was an invaluable opportunity for Choate students to practice public speaking, meet students from across Connecticut, and connect with their learned language and culture. Mrs. Antunez particularly enjoyed the opportunity to unite as a community, teachers and students alike, to celebrate each other’s achievements. “I know poetry recitation is not an easy thing,” she said, “but as you practice it, [you] get more of the melody of the language. It makes it sort of an art form, in that sense.”
