If a student wants to participate in one of our competitions, they must first recite at their local school. To prepare for a classroom level contest, each student explores our anthology for their grade level and chooses one poem, either in English or in French. Winners of the classroom contest advance to the school contest and memorize a second poem.
When a student chooses their second poem, they are also choosing their competition stream:
1st poem in English + 2nd poem in English = English Stream
1st poem in English + 2nd poem in French = Bilingual Stream
1st poem in French + 2nd poem in English = Bilingual Stream
1st poem in French + 2nd poem in French = French Stream
As always, recitations at school contests are judged using our Scoring Rubric, our Evaluation Sheet, and our Accuracy Score Sheet. The judges are usually teachers or local poets.
A school can name only one champion in each prize stream: one English Stream champion, one Bilingual Stream champion, and one French Stream champion.
- School champions can move on to compete in the Junior Online Finals (for students in grades 7-9) or the Online Qualfiers (for students in grades 10-12). School reciters may also form a team and enter one of our Team Regionals, where they only recite one poem.
Teachers, see our suggested recitation journey in Run a contest.