New!   Draft of Poetry Rubric for 2014!  Coming soon: Slates for Arabic and Updates for French & Spanish 
CT -COLT is already at work on next year's contest.  Click here for a DRAFT of next year's poetry rubric to share with your students!   
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
32nd Annual Poetry Contest held April 26, 2013 at Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford 
We cannot thank Choate enough for hosting!  The weather was warm; the campus, lovely; and the contestants better prepared than ever!
603 students were registered in 16 languages and assessed by 112 judges from around the world.  Coming soon:  2013 Winners' List!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the slates for COLT's 32nd Annual World Language Poetry Recitation Contest:
  • Teachers were invited last Spring to submit texts to be added to our 2012 slates.  CT-COLT happily accommodated all 120 of these suggestions for which specific texts were provided, and wishes that more proposals had been forthcoming!
  • Contestants in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish MUST recite selections from these approved slates of poems.  No substitutions will be permitted, as ample notification had been given about the submission of additions.  
  • Contestants in Ancient Greek and Latin must recite selections from the approved list of authors.
  1. Teachers are urged to share this rubric with their students:   judges commented on their 2012 survey that some contestants had never seen the elements on which they would be assessed. 
  2. Judges also suggested that the rubric be regularized to include a 1-3 point addition for difficulty level for tie-breakers, since not all recitations are from the approved slates.
  3. FYI, judges also remarked that some students who had prepared the same poem as others declined to recite when it came their turn.  Although this situation has been consistently noted on score sheets even before COLT adopted slates, it was more pronounced last year in contests with particularly popular poems.  Accordingly, please inspire your students to be extra-prepared and extra-confident!
  4. ESOL poetry will be judged according to LAS-Links guidelines. To view the chart, just select first icon -- View in Full Screen -- at the bottom of the graphic.   
  • Please check back for a link to the updated Poetry Contest Guidelines for 2013.  In the meantime, consult the CT-COLT website for the 2012 rules and regulations.   

The Slates of Poems:
  • The slates are listed below in red at the left.  For example, just click on "French Slate" to view the list of French poems.
    CT COLT is aware of the many variants of poetry:  this is most often the case with celebrated authors, who have revised earlier versions of their works.  If your student will be preparing a variation of a text listed on the slate, just include three copies of that version with your registration materials.  (As always, three hard copies of each poem -- whether on a slate or not -- will be needed for the judges.)
  • To download the texts themselves, just click on a language level (MS1, HS Native, etc.) in white letters: 
Questions about the poems or about judging?
  • Please contact Dr. MaryLouise Ennis, Chair of Poetry Judges.  Or post general questions to our blog (under the Questions? Tab at the top of the page)
                                                                                                                                                                                                          last update:  4.24.2013