Overview
- The State Competition will be held in-person at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival on Thursday, February 27, 2025.
- Regional competitions are strongly encouraged to be held live, if possible. Each region has the option, however, of hosting a virtual or hybrid regional competition.
- To increase accessibility, schools that wish to enter their school champions virtually to the regional competition may do so. Deadlines may be earlier for virtual entries to allow coordinators to process videos and ready them for live judging. Please contact your Regional Coordinator for details.
- Regional Coordinators may allow school alternates (or 2 students per school per competition) to compete in the regional competition if they are able to handle the number of students involved. Regions with a lot of schools may not be able to handle more than one student. This is at the Regional Coordinator's discretion.
- Regional Coordinators can send (but not required to) a total of fifteen (15) participants to the State level competition.
- Contact your Regional Coordinator for more information about regional workshops that are being planned!
PHASE I: CLASSROOM COMPETITIONS (October - December 2024)
We hope you will consider joining Alabama’s Poetry Out Loud program, as a great way to engage students as they return to your classrooms.
National Poetry Out Loud Competition: At this level students choose one poem from the
poetryoutloud.org website to memorize
and recite for the rest of the class.
State Original Poetry Out Loud Competition: Students write, memorize, and recite their own poem.
Social Issue Poem Competition: Students write, memorize, and recite their own poem addressing topical societal challenges they identify as relevant. At this level the Social Issue Poem and the Original Poem may be the same poem.
Students may opt to participate in one, two, or all three competitions. Schools that participate in their regional level competition are eligible to receive a $75.00 grant to support Poetry Out Loud activities. Each participating school will receive materials supplied by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
Additional resources may be found at
poetryoutloud.org. It is recommended that the student research the poet and/or topic and biographical information on the website. Class champions move forward to a school wide competition to identify a school champion for each of the three competitions. If only one class is participating, the class champion becomes the school champion.
PHASE II: SCHOOL COMPETITIONS (December 2024 - January 2025) and INDIVIDUAL COMPETITIONS
National Poetry Out Loud Competition: At the school level, students choose two poems from
poetryoutloud.org to memorize and recite for the school. Students should begin to consider the requirement for specific poems by the time they reach the regional level.
One poem must be pre-20th century and one poem must be 25 lines or less. Whereas this is not required at the school level, it will be required at the regional level.
State Original Poetry Out Loud Competition: Students write, memorize, and recite their own poem again. Students may revise and edit poems, but it is recommended they continue to use the poem that helped them get to this level.
The Social Issue Poem Competition: Students write, memorize, and recite their own poem addressing topical societal challenges they identify as relevant. At this level, the Social Issue Poem and the Original Poem should not be the same poem. School Champions move forward to the Regional Competitions.
Individual participating students will compete at this level after contacting their Regional Coordinator. And following the guidelines for preparing and filming regional entries must be strictly followed to be eligible (
See Guidelines for filming Alabama Poetry Out Loud recitations). Individual students must participate in a regional competition in order to be eligible to compete at the State level.
Individual students may not go straight to a regional competition without competing at this level.
PHASE III: REGIONAL COMPETITIONS (December 2024 - February 2025)
All students are encouraged to compete live for the Regional Competition. However, individual students and schools with an accessibility issue may send virtual recitations. Guidelines for preparing and filming regional entries must be strictly followed to be eligible (
See Guidelines for filming Alabama Poetry Out Loud recitations).
Regions with 10 or more schools participating may decide to accept only one champion per school. Regions with fewer schools may opt to accept a champion and an alternate from each school. Please check with your Regional Coordinator for rulings concerning how many students may compete regionally. All schools are encouraged to identify alternates in case a champion is unable to participate at the regional level.
National Poetry Out Loud Competition: At the regional level students choose three (3) poems from
poetryoutloud.org to memorize and recite for the school. Students must select one poem pre-20th century and one poem 25 lines are less. Both criteria may be met with one poem.
State Original Poetry Out Loud Competition: Students write, memorize, and recite two original poems.
Social Issue Poem Competition: Students write, memorize, and recite their own poem addressing any topic relevant to social issues and to the student personally. At this level the Social Issue Poem may not duplicate an Original Poem entry.
Five finalists for each competition move forward to the State Finals. Two alternates should be identified in case a finalist drops out.
PHASE IV: STATE FINALS (Thursday, February 27, 2025)
We will hold our State Finals on February 27, 2025, at Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. Any regional winner not able to participate live should contact the Alabama State Council on the Arts to request accommodations.
The Original Poetry Competition, the Social Justice Poem Competition, and an Award Ceremony will be held in the morning, starting at 9:00 am. In the afternoon, starting at 1:00 pm, we will hold the National Poetry Out Loud Anthology Competition and award ceremony. The state champion from the National Poetry Out Loud Anthology Competition
will compete in the National Finals in Washington, D.C., May 5 - May 7, 2025.
2024-2025 Calendar
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Date |
Event
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September - December 2024
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School/Organization/Independent Student Registrations Open -- Contact Regional Coordinator to Register
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October - December 2024
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Classroom activities and competitions
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December 2024 - February 2025 |
School/organization competitions
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December 2024 - February 2025 |
Regional workshops and competitions |
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February 27, 2025 |
State Finals in Montgomery, AL |
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May 5 - May 7, 2025 |
National Finals in Washington, D.C. |
Filming Guidelines
Read the guidelines for filming.
Resources
Here are some lesson plan videos of experienced Poetry Out Loud teachers with students who have made it to the State or National Finals.
Use this directory to contact your Regional Coordinators.
Download the free POL app! With this app, students can easily find, save, and practice poems for the competition on their phones or tablets.
Available for download:
Videos for the Classroom: Click here to view video workshops from the Alabama Arts Alliance on how to choose, interpret, read, and write a poem – and more!