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Poetry Out Loud: Program Materials & Schedule

Poetry Out Loud curriculum materials include:

 

A 2025 Illinois Poetry Out Loud Regional Contest Schedule will be announced this fall (2024).

Statewide Illinois POL Contest

Contest Date: March 17, 2025
Contest Start Time: 10:00 AM
Contest Location: Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield
For more information contact: Sheila Walk, programs@springfieldartsco.org


TYPICAL YEARLY POETRY OUT LOUD SCHEDULE

Typically, all Illinois regional Poetry Out Loud contests are held throughout the month of February. The Illinois state contest is held in early March. The national contest is held in Washington, D.C. The 2025 national POL contest is scheduled for May 5-7, 2025.

Generally, each state contest winner must register to participate in the national contest approximately six weeks prior to the national contest date.  Exact date for national contest registration will be provided to the Illinois state contest winner after the state contest concludes.

Teachers and students should plan on spending approximately three weeks on the POL curriculum materials and preparing for their school’s contest. Consider the timing of the regional contest for your school when planning the introduction of the POL curriculum and scheduling a school contest.

Students must participate in a school-level contest prior to competing in a regional contest. All regional contests require that schools register with the regional POL coordinator, the name of their school’s contest winner and the poems to be recited.

Eligibility rules, lesson plans, tips for organizing contests, examples of students' recitations, and the list of poems approved to be recited during school, regional and the national contests, etc., can be found on the official Poetry Out Loud website; www.poetryoutloud.org.  Be mindful that the list of approved poems changes every year.

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