Poetry Out Loud (POL) is a completely free program that encourages students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. It is presented through the partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
The 2024–25 competition marks 20 years for Poetry Out Loud, a true milestone for the longest-running program in the history of the National Endowment for the Arts. Be sure to view their POL twentieth-anniversary presentation, and don't miss the opportunity to participate in this celebratory year!
The ArtsPath POL region comprises five counties: Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson, as well as the DuBois Area School District.
While schools still have the option of holding virtual competitions at the classroom and school levels, all Pennsylvania regional competitions, including ArtsPath, and the state competition, will be in-person, as will the national competition.
For more information on holding your competition virtually, including filming requirements, tips, reminders, accessibility, as well as guidance in ensuring you have permission from the poem's rightsholder to stream the recitations—whether public or private—be sure to download information from the POL website. For the POL Streaming-Copyright Permissions List, email ArtsPath at artspath-info@iup.edu.
Your high school's champion will attend the ArtsPath regional competition, held at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, February 3, 2025, on the main Indiana campus. In the event of inclement weather, it will be on Wednesday, February 5, at the same time. The location will be either the upper lobby of the Performing Arts Center or in Gorell Recital Hall, second floor of Sutton Hall. TBA in January.
Register your school by completing the 2025 Registration Form and returning it by Friday, January 10, 2025. For additional information on the ArtsPath regional or Pennsylvania state contests, download a teacher's email packet.
Winner David "Dj" Gress, pictured here with Philip Horn, former executive director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Susan Corbett, the former executive director of Pittsburgh Arts and former First Lady, was the 2012-13 ArtsPath regional winner. From the Kiski School in Saltsburg, Gress also won at the state level and went on to represent Pennsylvania at the national finals in Washington, DC.
For more information on Poetry Out Loud, visit the comprehensive POL website, call Jeff Wacker at 724-357-4565, or email us at artspath-info@iup.edu.
About Poetry Out Loud
- Standards: POL satisfies more than half of the English Language Arts from the National Council of Teachers of English Standards, as well as at least three Anchor Assessments per the PA Common Core ELA Standards: Speaking and Listening (SL 9-10, SL 12-11), Reading (FL 9-10, RL 11-12), and Language (L9-10, L 11-12).
- The teachers' guide suggests ways to customize the program to meet your schedule constraints.
- Teachers use the comprehensive POL website, which has everything needed, including all support materials, poems, teachers' guide, media guides, videos, and more.
- Free, standards-based curriculum and lesson plans are available for schools, teachers, and students. There is also a section where teachers have submitted their own lesson plans for others to use.
Getting Your School Involved
Individual or groups of teachers, a school club, or the entire school may participate. Teachers can determine the extent of their participation. For example, they may...
- Incorporate POL into a unit of study, perhaps culminating in recitations by each student in front of the class;
- Offer the program as an extra credit project or after-school program's project; or
- Use some or all of the lesson plans offered online or in the free teacher's guide.
Whatever you plan, the end result should be one winner from your school who will participate in the ArtsPath regional competition (6:00 p.m., February 3, at IUP).
What Must Students Do?
- Choose poems from the hundreds of eligible poems at the POL website to memorize and recite for a class and then a school competition. All poems must be selected from the Poetry Out Loud print or online anthology, which is updated every summer. Check the website after September 1 to view the official POL anthology for the current school year. Only versions of poems from the official anthology may be used in the contest. Note: If you have a question on a poem's eligibility, be sure to email Jeff Wacker at jwacker@iup.edu for guidance.
- Recitations may not include properties, costumes, or music.
- Some gestures and minimal movement may, however, be appropriate to a given poem. Be sure to study the recitation guidelines found online or in the Teacher's Guide.
What Must Teachers Do?
- Be sure to read through the entire Evaluation Criteria in your Poetry Out Loud Teacher's Guide, also available from the Poetry Out Loud website.
- Students who are deaf or hard of hearing may choose to recite their poems in American Sign Language. For information on utilizing ASL in your POL program, please download the ASL Supplemental Guide.
Your School's Winner
Each school's winner will participate in the ArtsPath regional competition by:
- selecting and memorizing three different poems,
- attending the ArtsPath regional competition on the IUP main campus.
The ArtsPath regional winner will be awarded an expense-paid trip to the site for the state competition to compete with 13 other regional champions in the state finals on Monday, March 3, and the right to represent Pennsylvania in the national final.
The state winner will receive $200 and compete in person May 5–7, 2025, in Washington, DC. The winner's school will receive a $500 stipend to purchase poetry books. A runner-up in each state will receive $100, with $200 for the school to purchase poetry books.
Social Media
Poetry Out Loud is on the social media platforms of X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
POL Mobile App
Developed by the Poetry Foundation, this free POL app gives students the ability to easily find, save, and practice poems for the competition on their phones or tablets. It is available for download at both the App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android.
Having POL Website Issues?
The National Endowment for the Arts is aware that some users of the POL website are having difficulty with their browsers not loading the site’s stylesheets. If you're having this issue, please try the following potential solutions. As always, ensure you're using the most recent version of your browser.
- A hard refresh of the page (pressing CTRL+F5, or holding down shift while reloading the page).
- Opening the page in an incognito window (pressing control + shift + N, or select "New Incognito Window" from the file menu in Chrome).
- Double-check that there aren't any extensions or plug-ins installed that might affect how pages display.
- Open the page in a different browser.
If you continue to have issues, please email poetryoutloud@arts.gov.
Materials
Below is a list of materials that you will want to look at if your school is participating in Poetry Out Loud.
- Poetry Out Loud Teacher's Guide
- Poetry Out Loud Judge's Guide
- POL/ArtsPath One-Sheeter - All You Need To Know
- POL/ArtsPath Policies & Information
- POL/ArtsPath Timeline
- ArtsPath Email Packet for Teachers
- ArtsPath Regional Competition Registration Form
- POL Impact
Additional Questions?
For more information on running a Poetry Out Loud competition in the ArtsPath service region of Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson counties, call Jeff Wacker at 724-357-4565 or email us at either jwacker@iup.edu or artspath-info@iup.edu.
Poetry Out Loud is brought to Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by an annual appropriation from the state legislature, and in partnership with the 14 organizations in the state that constitute the Arts-in-Education partnership. Further support comes from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.