A passion for some, a terror for others, poetry is one of the oldest surviving art forms. Now, I know what you are thinking: "This isn't English class! Why do we have to study poetry?" Well, I've got some news for you: Poetry wasn't always just confined to a textbook or an emo kid's journal; it originated as a performance art long before written language. Therefore, we are going to take poetry back to its roots and perform it live. Oh, and did I mention it's a contest? That's right. The national Poetry Out Loud contest has sparked something of a renaissance of oral poetry, and, following their lead, we will have our own classroom competition. The winner from each class will receive some sort of prize (though I'm not sure what as of yet). So, are your ready for some football poetry?

Your first assignment is to select a poem from this website:

http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems-and-performance/find-poems

The poem will have to be memorized and performed dynamically. Keep in mind that the length of the poem will count as part of your score, so don't pick one that's too short (plus, short poems generally do not afford much opportunity to give a dynamic performance).  The minimum length for your poem should be 14 lines.

You may find the performance rubric here:

http://www.poetryoutloud.org/uploads/fl/af34c39739/scoring%20rubric.pdf


Happy hunting!

Mr. Pace