The East Asian Studies Center at The Ohio State University, with support from the Korea Foundation, presented opportunities for students and teachers to learn about Sijo (Korean Poetry) this February through May 1, 2021.  Teachers had several opportunities to learn about Sijo (Korean Poetry) through EASC’s self-paced, “Asynchronous Sijo (Korean Poetry) Workshop,” or at the “Synchronous Sijo (Korean Poetry) Workshop” on April 7, 2021 led by Dr. Mark Peterson, Brigham Young University with comments about how to incorporate it in the classroom from Denise Sizemore, Columbus North International School. There were 46 attendees of the Sijo Workshops from 11 states reaching over 3,200 students.  One teacher commented, “Thank you so very much for a wonderful experience!  It is always fun when teachers get to take part in "hands-on" learning, so I appreciated all that you did to make this as convenient and "hands-on" as possible!  I learned more about my students through this experience; we had a lot of fun together with a lesson that did not take all that long to teach. I encourage other teachers to participate next year!”

K-12 students in Ohio were introduced to Korea’s poetry form, Sijo, and could enter the Ohio Sijo Student Competition with prizes in two divisions.  EASC created materials to help students learn about and write Sijo poetry. Results of the first Sijo Student Competition were amazing with 129 submissions from students across the state in 14 schools for the Elementary/Middle School and High School Divisions. When asked to comment about Sijo, one student wrote: “Instead of just writing normal poetry. I like how, you have to have a specific amount of syllables, so it's like you're going on a treasure hunt for the right word with the right amount of syllables!”  Another student wrote, “One thing I learned is that the twist makes it exciting and anticipating. I have not seen any poetry like this before. So I think Sijo is great.”

Prizes were awarded to the winners listed below and at: https://easc.osu.edu/sijo/2021winners

Elementary/Middle School Division:

• First Place: Daniela Orellana, 8th Grade, Columbus North International School
• Runner Up: Katy Rockhold, 4th Grade, Toll Gate Middle School
• Runner Up: Naomi Wolfer, 7th Grade, Olentangy Liberty Middle School

High School Division:

• First Place: Aimee Foltz, 12th Grade, Millersport High School
• Runner Up: Kendyl Schilling, 12th Grade, Millersport High School
• Runner Up: Christian Benedetti, 12th Grade, Millersport High School

The Sijo program, including the teacher workshops and student competition were coordinated by the East Asian Studies Center at The Ohio State University and sponsored by the Korea Foundation and a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to the East Asian Studies Center at The Ohio State University.