When people hear the term March Madness, they associate it with the popular NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Brackets are filled out by thousands, as fans compete to pick the top teams in college basketball.

However, accelerated English students have their own type of March Madness at this point of the year. They too, will be filling out brackets, but rather than picking top basketball teams, the kids will be picking poems written by their peers.

“I love doing this every year because it’s a celebration of poetry and the poetry writing my students get to do,” said Mr. Breen Reardon, English teacher.

For a third quarter assignment, each student was asked to write one poem, on any topic of their choice. Rather than just collecting the poems for a grade, English teachers have made a tournament out of it.

“In English accelerated 11, we very often focus on analysis, so it’s fun to switch gears and try our hand at the creation of poetry,” said Reardon.

Rhyming, concrete poems, and even haikus have been entered in the competition. Unfortunately, not all the poems turned in made the cut, as only 64 poems were entered in the bracket.

“I think it’s a really cool opportunity and a fun competition,” said Samantha Ciricillo, 11. “I wished we had talked more about poetry before we had entered our submissions.”

Two poems will be read in a class and the poem with the most votes will continue on in the bracket. Even some teachers submit their writing in the contest.

“One year I will win March madness poetry,” said Reardon.

The Accelerated English classes are currently on the final round of voting, and are selecting the top poem written by their peer.