DAY 18: Introduction to Poetry Out Loud

We are a little out of kilter between the groups, but we'll all be back on the same page by tomorrow. Here were the differences:

• Today, Group 2 covered the first 5 words in Unit 3 of the vocabulary book, and lesson 5 (predicate adjectives) in the Sentence Diagramming workbook. Groups 4 and 6 will catch up tomorrow.
• Groups 4 and 6 took the vocabulary/story/diagramming quiz today, which group 2 took yesterday.

All groups were introduced to the Poetry Out Loud Project. Here is the overview:

WHAT:
Poetry Out Loud is a nationwide competition in which high school students recite (from memory) anthologized poems and are judged on their performances. The competition is run in a pyramid formation; after winning classroom competitions, students compete against other classroom winners of the sophomore class until three remain. These three sophomores will compete against the top three juniors. Only one student may win to represent USM in the state competition.

Winners at all levels are eligible for prizes.

• SCHOOL PRIZES: To be determined.
• STATE PRIZES: Each winner at the state level will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington (with an adult chaperone) to compete for the national championship. The state winner's school will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. One runner-up in each state will receive $100; his or her school will receive $200 for the purchase of poetry books.
• NATIONAL PRIZES: A total of $50,000 in scholarship awards and school stipends will be awarded at the Poetry Out Loud National Finals, with a $20,000 college scholarship award for the National Champion.

HOW MANY POEMS MUST YOU MEMORIZE?

• To recite in the classroom and to the sophomore class 1 (this is the one that counts toward your English grade)
• If you are one of the winners of the soph. class competition 2
• If you are the winner of the school competition 3
  
  State and national contestants will recite their poems in rounds, not consecutively, with each student reciting one poem in each round.

WHEN WILL POETRY RECITATIONS TAKE PLACE?

You must be prepared to recite before your class by Tuesday, October 14th.
Sophomore class recitations will be done the week of October 27th.
The recitation assembly will take place Tuesday, November 4th.

WHERE MUST I FIND A POEM?
All poems MUST come from the online anthology at the Poetry Out Loud website: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems/

HOW WILL I BE JUDGED?

In the classroom, you will be judged by your peers and your teacher. You will be evaluated on the following elements:

• Physical Presence
• Voice and Articulation
• Appropriateness of Dramatization
• Level of Difficulty
• Evidence of Understanding
• Overall Performance
• Accuracy
  

Please visit the following web address for full details about each of these criteria: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/students/checklist.html

********************END OVERVIEW*******************

After we discussed the overview of the Poetry Out Loud project, we looked at a video so you could see the contest in action.

Your homework tonight:

1. Pick and print THREE possible poems you would be interested in memorizing. All poems must grom from the Poetry Out Loud online anthology.

2. Group 2, you should add 5 sentences to the wikispace.