Poetry Out Loud, a spoken word poetry competition, is scheduled to take place this month in schools across America. The all-school contest is set to occur on Feb. 5 after school in the Glenbrook North library.

English teachers from different grade levels have signed up their classes to participate in a classroom-based competition first. Karen Cunningham, instructional supervisor of the English department, said students choose poems, memorize them and present them in a   competition during class time. After the initial competition, the teacher and students select a representative to advance to the schoolwide contest.

From there, teachers from various departments will determine one winner and one runner-up. The finalist and runner-up have the option to attend a regional competition at the Chicago Poetry Foundation.

According to Cunningham, last year’s finalist came very close to qualifying for the state competition, which follows regionals.

“We’re super excited, and I think our favorite thing about it last year was that students who we had no idea would be good at this would actually be superstars,” she said.