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Teachers Explore the Value of Poetry Recitation
by Jaclyn Reynolds
 Teachers from across Ohio participated in the Poetry Out Loud (POL) Teacher Training Workshop sponsored on October 18, 2008 by the Ohio Arts Council. The workshop was designed to enhance efforts to implement Poetry Out Loud in Ohio classrooms.
Teachers who participated are: Valerie S. Doersen and Emily Shrestha, Shaker Heights High School, Shaker Heights; John Weddendorf and Jennifer Esselburn, Westland High School, Galloway; Julie Haines, Mandy Ailes and Judy Ellsesser-Painter, South Webster High School, South Webster; Debby Baird, Stow-Munroe Falls High School, Stow; Sherri Hufford and Julie Zavesky, Medina High School, Medina; Coleen Pence-Sizelove, Butler Tech/Options Academy-The Arts, Hamilton; James Brooks, Chaminade-Julienne High School, Dayton; and Dee Rawdon, Ohio School for the Deaf and Carla Phillips, Kay Fields and Teresa Provens, Eastmoor Academy, Columbus.
The workshop included sessions on performance styles, appropriateness of dramatization, and how to evaluate a recitation. Columbus performance poets, Dionne Custer and Nancy Kangas led the workshop sessions. James Brooks, English teacher at Chaminade-Julienne High School in Dayton, led a session on the program from the teacher’s perspective. Brooks was the 2008 Poetry Out Loud state champion’s teacher. His student, Rachel Chandler, won Ohio’s POL state competition and competed at the national finals in Washington, DC in April 2008.
Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation contest for high school students. The competition is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. POL began in 2005 and continues to build on the resurgence of poetry as an art form. Students select poems from the POL anthology, which contains poems by some of the greatest poets of our time and throughout history. POL encourages students to study and memorize poems, while learning about America’s literary heritage. Participants also develop confidence and improve their public speaking skills.
State arts agencies across the country are participating in POL as it moves into its fourth year of competition. The Ohio Arts Council offers the program in partnership with the Thurber House and the Ohioana Library. During the national finals in May 2006, Ohio’s own Jackson Hille competed with contestants from 49 states and was named the first Poetry Out Loud national champion.
High schools across Ohio are invited to participate in this program. Teachers have begun working with students to hold school-wide contests and to prepare for Ohio’s POL state finals, Saturday, March 14, 2009. Online registration is available at:
http://www.oac.state.oh.us/Programs/PoetryOutLoud.
For additional information, please contact Poetry Out Loud coordinator for Ohio, Chiquita Mullins Lee at 614/728-4455 or chiquita.mullinslee@oac.state.oh.us.
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts – both new and established – bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities and military bases.
The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.
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