Teachers Guide: Rules

Download the complete Teachers Guide.

The following is a list of some basic rules that apply to Poetry Out Loud. For more details on these rules and other guidance on the competition, please thoroughly review the entire guide.

STUDENT ELIGIBILITY

• Students must be in grades 9-12, with an exception made for 8th-grade students who are in a participating 9th-grade class.
• Competitors at the state and national finals must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
• Schools must register with their State Arts Agency in order to participate in the official state competition.
• Students must participate in a school competition before progressing to the Poetry Out Loud state finals.
• Homeschooled students may participate by competing in a contest at a local school (at the school’s discretion) or with other local homeschool students. The state Poetry Out Loud coordinator should be consulted for guidance on participation.

POEM ELIGIBILITY

• All poems must be selected from the Poetry Out Loud print or online anthology.
• Poems may be removed from the online anthology before the school year begins. These poems are no longer eligible for competition, unless they are in the printed anthology.
• Poem order may not be switched once given to the competition organizer.
• At the state and national finals, students must have three poems prepared. One must be 25 lines or shorter, and one must be written before the 20th century. The same poem may be used to meet both criteria. The order in which the poems are recited is up to the student.

COMPETITION

• Schools must hold a competition to select their champion.
• Students must be evaluated according to the Poetry Out Loud evaluation criteria.
• State and national finals will consist of three rounds of competition. Competitions at lower levels may have fewer rounds.
• Judges should not convene to discuss performances between rounds. Rankings will be based solely on score sheets submitted by judges. Judges may not reconsider their scores after they are submitted.
• Scoring is cumulative. The scores from all rounds should be added together to determine the winner.
• In the event of a tie, the tied student with the highest overall performance score should win; if that also results in a tie, then look to the highest accuracy score.