5.
Contest Evaluation Sheet
Name of Student:
Title of Poem:
Weak Below Average Good Excellent Outstanding
Average
Physical
Presence
1 2 3 4 5 6
Voice and
Articulation 1 2 3 4 5 6
Dramatic
Appropriateness 1 2 3 4 5 6
Evidence of
Understanding 1 2 3 4 5 6
Overall
Performance 1 2 3 5 7 9
TOTAL: (MAXIMUM of 33 points)
ACCURACY JUDGE’S SCORE: (MAXIMUM of 8 points)
FINAL SCORE: (MAXIMUM OF 41 POINTS)
JUDGING POETRY OUT LOUD 9
Poetry Out Loud Scoring Rubric*
Weak Below Average Good Excellent Outstanding
Average
Body Poised;
Timid;
language Comfortable; body Authoritative;
Stiff or agitated; unsure; eye
and eye steady eye language body language
lacks eye contact contact and
Physical contact are contact and and eye and eye
with audience; body
Presence at times confident contact contact show
appears language
unsure, at body reveal compelling
uncomfortable reflects
times language strong stage stage presence
nervousness
confident presence
Audible, but Very clear, Very clear,
quiet; too crisp, crisp,
Inaudible; slow; Clear, Clear,
loud; effective use mastery of
Voice and distracting rhythm; adequate appropriate
monotone; of volume, rhythm and
Articulation singsong; hurried; intonation, intonation
paced intonation, pace, skillful
mispronunciations even pacing and pacing
unevenly; rhythm, and use of volume
affected tone pacing and intonation
Poem is
secondary to Poem is
Poem is
style of enhanced Style of
overshadowed by Style of
delivery; by style of delivery
significant Poem is delivery
includes delivery; any reflects
distracting neither reflects
instances of gestures, internalization
gestures, facial overwhelme precedence
Dramatic distracting facial of poem; all
expressions, d nor of poem;
Appropriateness gestures, expressions, gestures and
inflections or enhanced poem’s
facial and movements
accents; acting out by style of voice is well
expressions, movement feel essential
of poem; singing; delivery conveyed
and vocal are to poem’s
over-emoting;
inflections; appropriate success
inappropriate tone
inappropriate to poem
tone
Masterfully
Doesn’t Interprets interprets
Satisfactorily
sufficiently Conveys poem very poem for
Evidence of Obscures meaning communicat
communicate meaning of well for audience,
Understanding of poem es meaning
meaning of poem well audience; deftly revealing
of poem
poem nuanced poem’s
meaning
Inspired
Captivating
performance
Inadequate Sufficient performance—
Enjoyable shows grasp
Ineffective or recitation; recitation; whole equals
recitation; of recitation
Overall inappropriate lackluster; lacks “more than the
successfully skills and
Performance recitation; does does meaningful sum of the
delivers enhances
disservice to poem disservice to impact on parts”;; shows
poem audience’s
poem audience mastery of
experience
recitation skills
of the poem
*Note that all elements need not be present. Semicolons often represent “or,” especially in the
negative categories.
JUDGING POETRY OUT LOUD 11
8. Accuracy Score Sheet
Name of Student:
Title of Poem:
Maximum Score 8 points
Inaccuracy Deduction (subtract) – ____ points
Prompt Deduction (subtract) – ____ points
FINAL ACCURACY SCORE ____ points*
*Lowest possible score is 1 point
Minor inaccuracies, resulting in a 1 point deduction per occurrence, include:
• Confusing a pronoun (“he” instead of “she”)
• Confusing an article (“a” instead of “the”)
• Pluralizing a word or vice versa (“horses” instead of “horse”)
• Replacing a word with a similar word (“jump” instead of “leap”)
• Confusing the order of words (“hops and skips” instead of “skips and hops”)
• Skipping a word
• Repeating a word
• Adding a word
Major inaccuracies, resulting in larger deductions per occurrence, include:
• One line out of order -2 points
• Repeating a line -2 points
• Omitting an epigraph -2 points
• Including a footnote -2 points
• Skipped one line/skipped three or more words in the same line -3 points
• Reversed two stanzas -5 points
• Skipped one stanza -6 points
Use of prompter: Each time a student uses the prompter, 3 points will be deducted from the final
accuracy score.
JUDGING POETRY OUT LOUD 13
