For Teachers

RESOURCES

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Hosting a Contest

  • Organizing a Contest

    Poetry Out Loud may be conducted in-person or virtually. The guidance on this page includes information on how to hold public Poetry Out Loud events.

  • Judging a Contest

    Judges at all levels of competition must judge recitations based on the official Poetry Out Loud evaluation criteria. This page will prepare you to judge a competition at your school or organization.

Online Study Guides

  • Teaching Resources
    Every year thousands of teachers integrate Poetry Out Loud into their curricula. This section has everything you need to run a successful program in your classroom.

Audio and Visual Resources

  • POL Tips and Examples
    This YouTube playlist will provide tips and tricks for participants.

  • Learning Recitation
    Watch these National Final recitations and evaluate the strengths (and weaknesses!) of each, according to Poetry Out Loud evaluation criteria. Discuss the merits of these performances, which ones the you like best and why and how the poems are different when read versus recited.

Curriculum Resources

  • Lesson Plans
    Poetry Out Loud is not intended to replace classroom activities like creative writing. In fact, the two naturally complement each other. For that reason, we have created a number of optional writing activities and lesson plans for teachers.

  • Lesson Plan Videos

    On this webpage, you’ll be able to access lesson plan videos of experienced Poetry Out Loud teachers with students who have made it to the State or National Finals.