Whether it is with dread or excitement, every student at Malden High School anticipates Poetry Out Loud with intense emotions. It is a time when students come together to choose poems, memorize them, and encourage one another before their performances.
The program launched in 2005 after the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts began building and piloting the program in 2004. Since its creation, more than 4.4 million students and 81,000 teachers from 20,000 schools across the country have participated in the competition.
Locally speaking, it was introduced by the Huntington Theatre. Many Malden High School (MHS) students were intrigued and would participate in the competition as an after-school activity. When Jennifer Clapp, who was teacher leader at the time, came across a way of incorporating the competition into the classroom, she brought it up to the rest of the English department and it was agreed that this would be a beneficial activity for all students.
The structure of class competitions and also the period competitions were doable with the school’s schedule. Finals, which had students from several different periods, were held after school in the library until the teachers wanted it to be more exciting. A few years in, they also incorporated the teacher competition.
Clapp shared a fond memory of that first year of Poetry Out Loud at MHS, which was held in the cafeteria due to auditorium renovations. Teachers feared that the competition might have some bumps due to the awkward set-up, but found themselves pleasantly surprised at how captivated the students were by each performance.
“You could’ve heard a pin drop during every performance,” Clapp recalled. “I think part of that was because everybody had done it.” The program allowed students to understand how nerve-wracking the task could be and gave them the ability to fully appreciate each student’s bravery.
Clapp also recalled that they “almost had a little riot” when one student gave an incredible performance despite not scoring well on the poem’s accuracy. It seemed to the rest of the students that she deserved to win because she was able to gracefully hide her mistakes. Clapp remembered being glad that students were “upset about poetry” and that it was a pivotal moment that made teachers realize this program was something the school needed to keep doing.
Another convincing reason to keep Poetry Out Loud is its ability to get students to practice the essential skill of public speaking. However, there is a deeper gift that comes from the program that Clapp mentioned, which is that “we don’t have that many experiences that every student shares,” and this program allows for that. Students get to try something new and take risks, but because they all go through it, they can empathize with one another. This, in turn, creates a more welcoming environment within the classroom.
The empathy, memorization, public speaking, and performance aspects of Poetry Out Loud are but a few of the skills that are taught to students uniquely through this program. It incorporates several important abilities that students should have when they move on to the next step in their lives after high school and it is repeated for all four years.
This year’s Poetry Out Loud Finals took place on Monday, January 27th. The newest edition to the school’s trophy is Natalie Keating. As the years pass, it seems the school will need more space on the trophy’s plaque, which is sure to be another exciting moment in the program’s proud history.
