Excellent	Good	Average	Weak
Physical Presence	Confident and relaxed; posture and eye contact show commanding stage presence	Poised, good eye contact and posture	At times unsure, at times confident	Poor eye contact; stiff demeanor; nervous
Voice and Articulation	Very clear, crisp, well-paced, appropriate volume	Very clear, appropriate inflection, good pacing	Clear, sufficient tone, natural pacing	Inaudible; slow; distracting rhythm; singsong; hurried; mispronunciations
Appropriateness of dramatization	Well embodies poem; gestures illuminate poem’s meaning	Only gestures that enhance interpretation; embodies poem	Minimal distracting gestures or distracting voice inflection	Significant distracting gestures; inflections or accents; acting out poem; too much movement
Level of difficulty	Contains multiple elements of very challenging content, language and length	Contains multiple elements of challenging content, language and/or length	Some challenging content, language or length	Simple content, language, length
Evidence of understanding	Interprets poem very well for audience; nuanced	Well communicates meaning of poem	Satisfactorily communicates meaning of poem	Obscures meaning of poem
Overall performance	Very strong, compelling performance	Successful, enjoyable performance	Sufficient performance, nothing notable	Very weak performance; does disservice to poem