Poetry Out Loud: Far-Reaching Value
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation launched Poetry Out Loud (POL) "to give schools and students the opportunity to experience their literary heritage in a new way and to learn the skills of public speaking and performance," says Dan Stone of the NEA, whose roles in the program have included curriculum author, program manager, and creative director.
Based on results to date, that vision is being realized.
State arts agencies are supportive.
In 2005-06, all 50 states participated through either statewide initiatives or, like Ohio, through pilots conducted in part of the state. Plans to expand the program in 2006-07 are under way. According to Mary Campbell-Zopf, director of the Ohio Arts Council's Arts Learning Program, next year's competition will extend to a larger radius around the Capital region.
The arts community is delighted.
A diverse audience that included a number of literary figures, theater people, arts journalists, and other supporters filled the Lincoln Theater for the 2006 finals. "The audience was mesmerized by these students performing poems that clearly meant a great deal to them," says Stone. "I was just stunned at how powerful it was."
Most of all, educators and students are enthusiastic.
Poetry Out Loud began with a pilot project in Chicago and Washington, D.C. in 2004-05. Ninety-five percent of the teachers in that pilot report deciding to use the Poetry Out Loud curriculum every year. Stone hopes that school leaders will take advantage of the opportunity POL affords to bring schools and communities together in meaningful ways. "But Poetry Out Loud is not an extracurricular activity," he says. "It meets nine of the twelve NCTE standards. It enriches the serious analysis of literature. And students have been wildly enthusiastic." Stone says the experience of competing lit a spark for many of the national finalists. "This was a way to get to poetry that worked for them. Now they are writing more and planning to continue their studies."
The expert judges for Ohio's state finals expressed wholehearted belief in the power of Poetry Out Loud. "The most evocative experiences of language need to happen out loud," says Ann Townsend, poet and director of Denison University's creative writing program. "It was so good to see the students recognize that power."
Ann Townsend
David Hassler, poet and program and outreach director for Kent State University's Wick Poetry Program, says memorizing for recitation encourages deep reading of poems, as well as exploration of a broader range of great poems. "Too often," he says, "students are taught to stand outside a poem, to dissect it in search of its meaning. But a poem is a living thing, and its meaning is always an open-ended question."
"I love that young people are learning to love poetry and read it, that they are putting their own voices to the poems," says Dionne Custer, educator for school programs at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus. "I saw such a command of the language, an understanding of what they were reciting."
Each of the judges recommends that teachers of English, creative writing, and theater explore the Poetry Out Loud curriculum and anthology and take advantage of what poetry offers—oportunities to develop the creative sensibility that is vital in comprehending literature and realizing the dramatic possibilities of language. As Dionne Custer puts it: "There is so much more to poetry."
This article was published in March 2006, Volume 2, Issue 2.
