Many teachers develop oral communication skills through questioning, discussion, Socratic seminars, think-pair-shares, jigsaws, and small-group projects. To these activities the author has added poetry under the auspices of Poetry Out Loud, a national program that asks students to memorize and recite poems. On its website (www.poetryoutloud.org/), Poetry Out Loud says that it is designed to help students work on "public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life." Competition for Poetry Out Loud begins at the classroom level before progressing to the school, state, and regional levels. The author asked students to select a poem of at least 100 words that elicits an emotional response. Students generally have three weeks to work on memorizing their poems on their own time. During these weeks, the author's in-class curriculum is a mix of poetry analysis and the development of public speaking skills. The speech lessons require students to work in small groups and to make presentations. Typically, the author offers feedback to students on the quality of their physical presence, voice, pronunciation, rate of speech, and pacing skills based on the rubric Poetry Out Loud developed for their competition, which is available on the competition website. In general, the author has found that the more students are asked to get up in front of the classroom, the more comfortable they eventually get with the concept of "audience." According to the author, if they can get the majority of their students excited about poetry and public speaking all in one shot, that is a significant accomplishment.