The Blog

Students Compete in “Poetry Out Loud”

Poetry Out Loud is a competition between students who take two poems and recite them word for word in a class competition. The winners of the class competitions then perform in a school competition, where they are judged again, and the winner of the school competition then will compete at Regionals.

Juan Lasso

This year, every student from Mr. Jay Garrison’s sophomore, junior, and senior English classes performed in the class competitions. Some freshmen who were in the first semester drama class also competed. The finalists in those classes who made it to the school competition were as follows: Wendy Bornmann, Noah Dexter, Meagan Dittmer, Sang Duong, Beran Fisher, Marilla Flynn, Zoe Flynn, Alexis Gulbranson, Talitha Harrington, Juan Lasso, Janie Mousel, Clark Pham, and Hannah Ritta.

Judges selected the students who preformed without error and met the performance criteria for presence, voice, complexity, dramatic appropriateness, and evidence of the comprehension of the poems. The judges that judged the school competition were Mrs. Barb Hoff, Mrs. Deana Leonard, Mrs. Ruth Ferris, Mrs. Janice Stuhmer, and Miss Becky Ritta.

Juan Lasso won the school competition and Clark Pham was chosen as the alternate. Juan’s next step in this event is competing at Regionals on February 9th in Kearney at the Museum of Nebraska Art. Congratulations to Juan and Clark on this huge accomplishment!