The national Poetry Out Loud (POL) program sponsors an annual recitation competition in which high school students memorize and perform poems by writers from various time periods and schools of poetics. A wonderful example of support for the arts in education, it’s also one way educators can connect with high schoolers on their own terms. Not to mention, recitation of stories and poems is a historic pastime.
About the Poetry Contest
Any high school can choose to participate in the Poetry Out Loud competition. Teachers lead the way as ambassadors for the program in their classroom or school, as part of their lesson plans or as an extracurricular activity for students. Poetry Out Loud collects more than 600 classic and contemporary poems for students to choose from, and provides support material (like the Poetry Out Loud anthology and CDs of writers and actors reciting poems) for teachers to use as they guide students through the memorization and recitation of poetry.
Students select poems to memorize and perform at competitions. They compete first at the high school level, and winners proceed to competitions within a county, the state, and finally at the national level. The national competition usually occurs in April each year, a highlight of National Poetry Month.
Winning the Poetry Out Loud Competition
Performances are evaluated by judges based on criteria such as articulation, evidence of understanding, level of difficulty, and accuracy. The competition is brought about by a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and State Arts Agencies. In 2009, some 300,000 US students took part in Poetry Out Loud.
Currently, prizes include $200 for each winner of a state competition, along with an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC for the national competition. The state winner's school is awarded a $500 stipend to purchase books of poetry. One runner-up in each state wins $100, plus $200 for his or her school library. Total, the program awards $50,000 in school stipends and prizes at the National Finals.
Students Recite Poems by Maya Angelou, Walt Whitman, Kay Ryan–US Poet Laureate, and More
For 2010, the Poetry Out Loud anthology includes writing from poets like: Maya Angelou, John Ashbery, Robert Burns, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, George Eliot, Robert Frost, Louise Glück, Robert Hass, Ha Jin, Yusef Komunyakaa, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Lee Masters, Alice Notley, Wilfred Owen, Edgar Allan Poe, Kay Ryan–current US Poet Laureate, William Shakespeare, Jean Toomer, Walt Whitman, and a wealth of many other accomplished writers. The contest website makes it easy to browse by poem or through the entire list of poets in the POL anthology.
Spoken word and performance poetry, or slam poetry, has grown increasingly popular in recent years. Programs like Poetry Out Loud present a means to encourage learning that combines classic topics with the interests of young people today.
References
Other Articles of Interest
Writers Read Their Work on Dublit.com
Marissa Bell Toffoli - Writer, editor, and poetry teacher Marissa Bell Toffoli interviews writers at http://wordswithwriters.com.
