Gearing Up for a New Year

Welcome to the 2013-2014 NH Poetry Out Loud program!

This year we say a regretful and appreciative goodbye to outgoing program coordinators, Cynthia Robinson and Arlene Taranow, who have worked hard to support the program over the past several years, with amazing results!

Our incoming Coordinator is Andrew Periale, and he will be assisted by Jenn Andrews (yours truly). If so inclined, you can learn more about our backgrounds by checking out the "staff bios" document posted in the column to the right of this post (below the photos).

That is also where you can see an overall description of the program nationally, this year's calendar, a hard copy of the registration form, and other key links.

If you know you will be participating this year, please go to our online registration form TODAY to reserve your school’s “spot” in the program; participation will be capped at 40 for all of NH (first-come, first-served), so don’t wait until the deadline (Nov.1).

We look forward to getting to know all of you, and working together in the months to come! Stay tuned...

Semifinals Completed! Congrats to all!

Wow, it just never ceases to amaze me!
A whirlwind of semifinals events in the past week, but each one was unique and fabulous!
Your students did such a terrific job.

I wish they all could go on to the Finals, but, of course this is a competition...

The 2013 NH Poetry Out Loud Students going on to Finals are:

Dessaline Etienne, Goffstown High School

Emma Ridinger, Hopkinton Middle High School 
Kate Scheuch , Kearsarge Regional High School

Stephanie Bilodeau , Keene Public Library
David Gibson, Newfound Regional High School 

Collin McKinley, Newmarket High School
Dan Belshaw, Oyster River High School
Jacqueline Mazzone , Saint Thomas Aquinas High School 

Amanda Horrocks, Timberlane Regional High School     

Caitlin Pierson, Windham High School    

Alexandra Valliant, Woodsville High School

POL Student Clinic!

What a great event!
It was very cold and windy outside, but those students who braved the elements to make it to our first POL Student Clinic were rewarded with individual feedback, lots of info, and the chance to meet other competitors.

Arlene leads ice breaker

Students share fun info about themselves

Small group moments, sharing poems, giving each other feedback

Rodger has students stand with shoes off, to find ways to incorporate more of their bodies into their presentations

Rodger works with each student on interpreting their poems line by line.

Liz works with student on what to do with hands.

Jason introduces the plan for the afternoon

Jason gives feedback on each student's concerns

Break time - a moment to chat

Notes from Visiting School Events Jan 19

The best part of this job is to be able to go and see the competitions put on by participating schools. I love how each school creates their own version, adding fun and interesting ways to engage students as well as audience members!
Arlene has been able to make it to several: She says:
What a great week visiting with these schools! The students and teachers were so excited! The formats and environments at these schools were quite different from each other. Most notably were the way in which rounds were set up. Another was the choice of judges. At one school, the judges were mainly members of the community, while at another they were teachers (and the prompter was a seventh grader). It all seemed to work for the schools!

A few notes that might be ideas for others to try:

A  school featured a table with coffee, chocolates and cookies in the center as you enter the room. Also, there was a large, white sheet cake with the Poetry Out Loud logo imprinted on the cake –how cute is that!

A school had two middle schoolers performing first for calibration. They were incredible! 

At one school, the music was from a boom box with one of the middle schoolers singing live. He was great! Very bluesy and hipster! 

At another school, in lieu of an interlude, the MC shared interesting facts about the poet whose work was just heard - great idea!

 

School Champion and Alternate Champion Info

Hello Teachers!

It's starting to roll! Schools are holding their championship events, so it's time to remind you all about the next steps...

First, as soon as possible after your event, please send a quick email with the names of your School Champion and Alternate Champion (runner up). We will post these on the NHSCA website- so please check the spelling of your students' names!

Next, you'll need to have BOTH students choose a 3rd poem (assuming most of you have your students learning 2 for your competition).

And third, you'll need to have BOTH students complete the Student Information form, in order for them to be eligible to represent your school at the Semifinals.
Here's where the form is located this year online:
POL Student Info Form 2013

The Form is also available as a downloadable, printable, mail or emailable form. I have sent it once to you via email, and will continue to send it as I check in with each of you after your competitions...
You can also email me to get it.
Posting it on the NHSCA POL page this week.

Looking forward to witnessing your students' presentations!

List of Non-American Poets

Thanks To Jeanne Sturges!

1.      Chris Abani was born in Nigeria

2.      Agha Shahid Ali was born in New Delhi and grew up in Kashmir

3.      Simon Armitage was born in West Yorkshire, England

4.      Matthew Arnold 1822–1888, English

5.      Margaret Atwood, Canada

6.      British poet Kate Bass was born in north London.

7.      Aphra Behn English 1640–1689

8.      William Blake was born in London

9.      Richard Blanco was made in Cuba, assembled in Spain

10.   Eavan Boland, Ireland

11.   William Lisle Bowles, England

12.   Anne Bradstreet, England

13.   Robert Bridges, England

14.   Robert Bringhurst, Canada

15.   Charlotte Bronte, England

16.   Emily Bronte, England

17.   Rupert Brooke, England

18.   Elizabeth Barrett Browning, England

19.   Robert Browning, England

20.   Basil Bunting, England

21.   John Bunyan, England

22.   Suzanne Buffam was born and raised in Montreal, Canada

23.   Robert Burns, Scotland

24.   Lord Byron, England (great bio)

25.   Thomas Campion, England

26.   Thomas Carew, England

27.   Thomas Carlyle, England

28.   Lewis Carroll, England

29.   G.K. Chesterton, England

30.   John Clare, England

31.   Arthur Hugh Clough, England

32.   Samuel Taylor Coleridge, England

33.   Victor Hernandez Cruz, Puerto Rico

34.   Walter De La Mare, England

35.   Blas Manuel De Luna, Mexico

36.   Gregory Djanikian, Egypt

37.   John Donne, England

38.   Ernest Dowson, England

39.   Michael Drayton (1563-1631), England

40.   John Dryden (1630-1700), England

41.   Sasha Dugdale, England (lived in Russia)

42.   42. George Eliot, England

43.   Queen Elizabeth I, England

44.   Rhina P. Espaillat, Dominican Republic

45.   Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, England

46.   Jorie Graham, born in New York, raised in France and Italy

47.   Thomas Gray, England

48.   Fulke Greville, England

49.   Thom Gunn, England

50.   Elizabeth Hands, England

51.   Thomas Hardy, England

52.   William Ernest Henley, England

53.   George Herbert, England

54.   Robert Herrick, England

55.   Daryl Hine, Canada

56.   Thomas Hood, England

57.   Gerard Manley Hopkins, England

58.   AE Housman, England

59.   Leigh Hunt, England

60.   Josephine Jacobsen, Canada

61.   Ha Jin, China

62.   Ben Jonson, England

63.   Ilya Kaminsky, Odessa (USSR)

64.   John Keats, England

65.   Anne Killigrew, England

66.   John Kinsella, Australia

67.   Rudyard Kipling, India/England

68.    Charles Lamb, England

69.   Letitia Elizabeth Landon, England

70.  James Lasdun, England

71.   DH Lawrence, England

72.   Li-Young Lee, Indonesia/China

73.   Denise Levertov, England/US

74.   Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Malaysia

75.   Richard Lovelace, England

76.   Mina Loy, England

77.  Louis MacNeice, Ireland

78.   E A Markham, Montserrat, West Indies

79.   Christopher Marlowe, England

80.   Dionisio D Martinex, Cuba

81.   Andrew Marvell, England

82.   John Masefield, England

83.   Claude McKay, Jamaica/US

84.   Adah Isaacs Menken US/French

85.   George Meredith, England

86.   John Milton, England

87.   Thomas Moore, Ireland

88.   Lisel Mueller, Germany

89.   Yone Noguchi, Japan

90.   Alfred Noyes, England

91.   Naomi Shihab Nye US/Palestine

92.   Dennis O’Driscoll, Ireland

93.   Arthur O’Shaughnessy, England

94.    Wilfred Owen, England

95.   P.K. Page, England

96.   Katherine Philips, England

97.   Alexander Pope, England

98.   Sir Walter Ralegh, England

99.   Mary Robinson, England

100.                  Isaac Rosenberg, England

101.Christina Rossetti, England

102.Dante Gabriel Rossetti, England

103.May Sarton, Belgium/US

104.Siegried Sassoon, England

105.William Shakespeare, England

106.Percy Bysshe Shelley, England

107.                  Philip Sidney, England

108.Charles Simic, Yugoslavia

109.Louis Simpson, Jamaica/US

110.Christopher Smart, England

111. Stevie Smith, England

112. Charlotte Smith, England

113. Stephen Spender, England

114. Edmund Spencer, England

115. Anne Stevenson, England

116. Virgil Suarez, Cuba/US

117.Arthur Symons, Wales

118. Rabindranath Tagore, India

119. Ann Taylor, England

120.Jane Taylor ?

121. Alred, Lord Tennyson, England

122. Dylan Thomas, Wales

123. Edward Thomas, England

124. Thomas Traherne, England

125. Edmund Waller, England

126. Phillis Wheatley, Senegal-Gambia/enslaved (US)

127.William Wordsworth, England

128. Dorothy Wordsworth, England

129. Thomas Wyatt, England

130.William Butler Yeats, Ireland

Sample Intro Speech for school events

Hi teachers, Just had a request for the great sample intro that Kate Donahue of Plymouth Reg HS shared last year. Copy the language if you like for your MC!

From Kate Donahue, Plymouth Regional High School POL Coordinator

Introductory Statements for Poetry Out Loud Competition, 2011

            Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Plymouth Regional High School’s 6^th Annual Poetry Out Loud High School Competition. The winner of tonight’s recitation contest will go up against other New Hampshire high school winners at (insert your semi final site here) on ^{(insert your semi final date here)} for the New Hampshire Semi-Finals Round. The 4 top scorers from there will compete in the state competition at The State House in Concord on Friday, March 15.

            Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation competition endorsed by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. High School students across the country are memorizing and reciting poems from a list of 400 choices. A winner from each state will travel to Washington, D. C. in April to compete for the national title.

            Tonight each recitation will be judged in 6 categories: physical presence, voice, dramatization, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, and the overall performance.

            And now I would like to introduce our performance judges for this competition. They are:

           _______, a Pemi-Baker School Board member; _______, poet and PRHS English teacher;______, regional actor; __________, Plymouth Elementary School language arts teacher; __________, poet and PSU English professor, and _______, retired language arts teacher.

            The Accuracy Judge is _______. The Prompter is ___________. Our Scorers are ___________________. We thank them for their time and efforts in participating in this program.

            We would like to recognize and thank (list of English teachers and other teachers and helpers) for promoting this in their classes and for organizing this event.

            We also extend our thanks to PRHS Theatre for lighting and sound; NH State Council on the Arts; and The PRHS English Department for the refreshments.

            And now, to recognize the classroom winners, and to announce their competition order for Round 1:

(Read off names of students in alphabetical order)

            After a short break, Round 2 will be done in reverse order featuring the top 50% scorers from round 1. The highest and lowest scores for each performer in each round will be dropped. The winner and alternate will be announced at the conclusion of tonight’s competition and certificates for all participants will be given. Judges’ decisions are final.

            We will begin with 2 calibration rounds with volunteers ________ and _______ to recite their poems so that the judges may get used to the scoring of the recitations.

            Thank you all for coming and please enjoy the poetry performances.