“We Make Beauty.”Slam Poetry

for Close Reading and Student Voice

“Answering Machine,” Megan L.Megan’s haiku “contest” entry:

“Pick up the phone, please,baby, don’t give up on life.Answering machine.”

“I feel like your class, your poetry, your lessons, and you came at exactly the right time in my life. I leave your class as a more confident person. I leave your class feeling more at peace with myself and with my loss.”

From 2006 to 2014, I taught literature in an interdisciplinary, problem-based team focused on environmental sustainability in Illinois...

Then, my family packed up and moved to the Pacific Northwest where I could still teach but also homestead a small farm...

I found out unexpectedly about two weeks before school began in my new district that I would be teaching AP Literature to seniors and that the school year had to begin with a unit helping seniors to write their college essays.

Who am I and how did I get here in front of you?

How could I use what I knew about problem based learning to address

these goals?

Back up - what if I don’t teach poetry?● If you are interested, here’s the link to how this connects to Common Core.● What I’d like to talk about is larger than poetry or Language Arts:

○ Voice, relevance, and authenticity○ Problem-based learning○ Benefit of close attention to academic detail

● We want students to know how to read closely, but do they see a need?● We want students to be experienced speakers, but do they care?

Any unit in any curriculum can start by considering these principles.

You may know why you are teaching something, but students need to find their own answer to “why?” even more than they need your answer.

Let students make their own meaning rather than asking them to receive yours.

Today’s Presentation

1. How does problem-based learning open a door to the effective teaching of an academic skill like the close reading of poetry?

2. What is student voice, why does it matter, and how doyou incorporate it into daily academic lessons?

Definitions

“...student voice refers to the values, opinions, beliefs, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students in a school, and to instructional approaches and techniques that are based on student choices, interests, passions, and ambitions.”-“The Glossary of Education Reform,” Great Schools

“...students work with classmates to solve complex and authentic problems that help develop content knowledge as well as problem-solving, reasoning, communication, and self-assessment skills. These problems also help to maintain student interest in course material because students realize they are learning the skills needed to be successful in the field.”-Speaking of Teaching, Stanford University

Problem- Based Learning (PBL)

Student Voice

The “Problem”Knowing my students had two pressing real world problems (a college essay and an AP Literature test) in front of them, I invented a problem that would help them work through the skills needed (personal voice and a working knowledge of poetry) to tackle those problems.

Why not use slam poetry to force my students to develop their voices and learn about a close reading of poetry?

What IS Slam Poetry?

● Oral tradition, storytelling● Beat Poets● Marc Kelly Smith and the

Green Mill● Brave New Voices● Def Poetry Jams

Slam Poetry is spoken word poetry, meant to be performed. To “slam” a poem is to perform it with energy, ofen competitively.

Louder Than a Bomb

“Poet, Breathe Now,” Adam Gottlieb, Louder Than a Bomb

How do you run a poetry slam?We followed the Louder Than a Bomb template:

● Teams of 3 to 5 students● 3 solo poems● 1 group poem● Student and staff judges rated poems on whiteboards:

○ 1 = a poem which should never have been written○ 10 = a work of mind bending, face melting literary genius○ High and low scores thrown out

● Venue - auditorium, library, commons● Time - we did an in-school field trip, periods 1-4● The link to my instruction sheet is here.

“The point is not the points. The point is the poetry!”

The Very OfficialTM Poetry Slam Prize

Take a blank card.For 5 minutes, have a response to the

word “poetry” on the card.You can write, draw, both, neither.

What do you think and feel when you hear the word “poetry”?

When I asked students this question, I got a range of responses...

Some were early adopters and ready to be with me all the way...

Others felt comfortable activatingbackground knowledge and remembering old favorites...

I was surprised at the cognitive schema some of them latched onto...

A few were a little apprehensive...

or confident but ambivalent...

and sometimes I just never knew what attitudes kids would bring to the table...

But there were a fewcommon themes:

Everything is a poem, there are no rules, write whatever you want!

ORPoems are a secret code and the object is to find the hidden meanings.

ORI really don’t know and I don’t care. It doesn’t have anything to do with me anyway.

Some underlying principles we used...

● Respecting the literary flashlight● Exploration rather than fixed analysis● Hands-on play and student voice

“...all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means.”

“Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins at Poetry 180

Structure of the UnitMondayIntroduce new concepts in poetry

TuesdayExploration and play

WednesdayClose reading of an existing poem

ThursdayWorkshopping of student poems

FridayAP Test Preparation

Thoughts on Sharing Poetry in Class

● Offer multiple pathways● Small contests● Informal sharing● Collaborative poems● Found poems● Extra credit● Model applause and feedback

A few “don’ts”...

DON’T let students share another student’s poems. They have to read their own.

DON’T allow bullying or poems that target others. That’s the only topic I restrict.

Poems can mean a lot of different things, but they don’t mean “anything” or “everything.”What’s “inside” the flashlight of possible meanings? What’s not? Why?

The Literary Flashlight

Exploring Poetry - Two Models

My former colleague, Biology teacher Jame Holt, walks and talks water quality with Riverside Brookfield High School students.

Starry Night Over the Rhone, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

Read a poem like you’d take a walk in the woods. Read a poem like you’d look at a painting.

Exploring Poetry - Poetry as Daily Life● Personal collections● Sharing● Gifting● Curating

○ For self (talismans)○ For others

● Subversive poetry● Watching● Reading● Discussing

○ In class○ In writing○ Online

Live Performance #1“Eve’s Armageddon”

Maya WeinmasterClass of 2019

Performance Poetry for Close Reading

How performance changes a poem...

“We Real Cool”

THE POOL PLAYERSSEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL

We real cool. WeLeft school. We

Lurk late. WeStrike straight. We

Sing sin. WeThin gin. We

Jazz June. WeDie soon.

from The Bean Eaters, Gwendolyn Brooks, 1960

How performance changes a poem...When you have to SAY this, you think about...

● Speaker and situation

● Poet’s attitude towards the speakers

● The first two lines - spoken?

● Why the repetition?

● Why the enjambment?

● What’s the tone?

● Phrases like “sing sin” and “jazz June”?

● Why these coupleted lines?

● The negative space at the end?

● Group performance - who says what? One speaker? Unison? Varying? Why?

● Lines to “punch,” “paint,” or “pause”?

“We Real Cool”

THE POOL PLAYERSSEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL

We real cool. WeLeft school. We

Lurk late. WeStrike straight. We

Sing sin. WeThin gin. We

Jazz June. WeDie soon.

Punch, Pause, Paint

“I hate you truly. Truly I do.Everything about me hates everything about you.”

PUNCH - What words need to be emphasized?PAUSE - Stop where? What does punctuation tell you?PAINT - Which words need a particular emotional tone?

“Hate Poem,” Julie Sheehan, from Poetry 180 Punch, Pause, Paint from Poetry Out Loud

Using Punch, Pause, Paint

Live Performance #2“Under the Bookshelf”

Maddie NowickiClass of 2020

Explore Poetry - Discussion ModelsDe-emphasize the teacher as holder of “secret knowledge.”

● Fishbowl discussions● Online forums● Whiteboard discussions● Small group● Debate

Performance exemplifies the “exploratory” model of reading a poem. Here, you read the poem to embody it and make your own meaning from it.

One Exploratory ModelThe “Best” Word and Diction

Ask students to select the “best” word from a poem, gather evidence, and support their opinion in discussion. Instructions linked here.

This is really a discussion about diction. What makes one word “better” than another? What constitutes the “best” diction?

“Prose = words in their best order.Poetry = the best words in the best order.”

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Explore Poetry - The “Best” WordThose Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?

-Robert Hayden

So what’s the “best” word? Why?

Typical student choices:

Sundays, too, father, blueblack, cold, chronic, indifferently, austere, love’s, offices

Things that come up in discussion:

● The situation of the poem vs. the theme● Synonyms for words

○ connotations and denotations● Locations of words in lines● Sounds of words● Ambiguities in words● How a word resonates on multiple levels

We don’t start by asking what the poem “means,” but we create multiple readings regardless.

Sense of Play - ImageryImages are words which appeal to one of the five senses. They are the primary tool by which poets share their experiences with readers.

Look at this image. Write a single line of poetry where you share a strong image.

Avoid writing what everyone else is going to write!

From National Geographic

Sense of Play - Sound“[Poetry] can be defined first as a language in which the sound of the words is

raised to an importance equal to that of the meaning…

‘Two and twoare rather blue.’

‘No, no,’ one may say, ‘two and two are four’ but that is in another language.”

-Kenneth Koch, Making Your Own Days

What happens when you give students a famous line of verse (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” perhaps) and then ask them to 1) respond based on meaning, 2) respond based on sound, 3) respond based equally on both?

Sense of Play - Allusions

daimon diamond monad IAdam Kadmon in the sky

-“Beam 10” from ARK, Ronald Johnsonrecommended by Professor Eric Selinger, DePaul University

This is my favorite poem in the universe.

Using your phone, Internet, whatever you like (just don’t “Google” the poem), what can you discover in these nine words? Don’t worry about what it “means.” Just find stuff. Working for a single class period collaboratively, my students discovered ninety two allusions in this poem and we’re still going. Here’s the link. No peeking.

A starter. The poem is written to the cadence and with some of the words to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

Sense of Play - The Haiku ContestWe write them because students have always written them and think they know them.

New concepts include - seasonal imagery, metaphor, the kireji (cutting word), the senryu as opposed to the haiku.

Students can submit a traditional haiku, a traditional senryu, and a humorous entry.

Full instructions to the activity are linked here.

“You know those people,who beg for votes on a poem?I am those people.”

“How sad can it besitting alone on a train.Her rain made of tears.”

“The Arctic Circleputs forth sprouts of Spring flowersthough it is Winter.”

“If you really read the poem,it would be obvious to youthat the best word was ‘too.’”

How do you prepare for a poetry slam?● Start early● Lots of models and examples

○ Peers○ Professional

● Small performances○ In class group performances○ Poetry Out Loud○ Informal sharing

● Allow for “outs”○ Larger groups○ Judges

● Model your own poems● Trust the process

“If you were to tell me that I would stand in front of a group of my peers and read something about myself I would have called you crazy… But once I began to write out my slam poem I began to realize that this was something I was meant to do. I was meant to stand in front of others and let them know how I feel about myself and let them know what I am thinking.

I also came to realize I was also doing this for myself; I was showing myself that I am able to write what I feel and that no one was going to judge me for it. I learned that writing is the water to the fire that is fear and that although it may seem wild and out of control it can be extinguished.”

-Kaylee B.

The Final Nuts and BoltsBy the end of the nine week unit (roughly ¼ of the course), students had…

● Written a personalized collection of their own poetry.● Curated a set of their own “talisman” poems with justifications.● Completed four AP-style poetry-related timed writings.● Completed seven AP-style poetry multiple choice practice passages.● Written a long-form “explication” of published poem of their choice.● Read a novel independently that paired with an existing poet and written a

compare contrast essay.● Competed in Poetry Out Loud - a national recitation contest.● Competed in our Very Official Poetry Slam.

Final ThoughtsPoetry and Student Voice

Three years in, how the idea has grown...

1. Just get through the first unit!2. Three classes, 60 students, 15 teams3. Five classes, 130 students, 29 teams4. School assembly5. Performance Poetry Club and All School Slam6. Wider curricular integration?

“Allahu Akbar,” Rahul R.“Why do we call English class ‘language arts’? I have seen the language, but where’s the art?

Poetry puts the art in language arts. I was able to get a sense of who my classmates were as people. It’s weird to think you could go to school with people for a decade and not know them at all, but poetry gave everyone an outlet to open up.

I was able to express myself in a way I never really felt I could before. I was able to bring myself to talk about social issues that I had always thought but was too afraid to say anything about.”

ResourcesBooks

● The Practice of Poetry

● How to Read a Poem

● How to Write a Poem

● The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop

● Making Your Own Days

● How to Read a Poem and Start a Poetry Circle

Sources of Slam Poems● Button Poetry

● College Union Poetry Slam Invitational

● Spoken Word - Tips, Tools Tactics

Film & TV● Louder than a Bomb

● Brave New Voices

● Def Poetry Jams

Contests and Networks● Poetry Out Loud

● Poetry in Voice

● Youth Speaks - Seattle

Teacher-y Things● Poetry 180

● Say Something Wonderful

● My Website

I couldn’t help it. Here’s one more playlist of some of my favorite performance pieces on the web! -DM

Questions?

I also have two more student poems to show if you’d like!

“Power of Poetry,” James Bent

“We make beauty.”

“Creativity,” Rylan Cummings

“I, for sure, would never have seen myself as much of a poet, but somehow I made it in my heart, my one hit wonder of all time. With a little help from you, I made a poem I will never forget.”

Common Core - Reading, Writing, SpeakingREADINGParticularly when adapting someone else’s poem for performance, dramatic interpretation of poetry hits every Common Core standard for reading, asking students to create their reading explicitly from a text, determining themes or competing themes of a poem, looking at individual author choices and thinking about how to portray those choices in performance, considering multiple meanings of individual words (figurative, denotative, connotative), thinking about how the structure of a poem lends itself to a structured performance, and thinking about mood and tone as it fits a speaker’s point of view.

WRITINGWhile the end goal of performance poetry is performance, writing can play a key part in the development of a performance. Students can explicate poems, offer critical analysis, conduct literary research, and so on and so forth. A common assignment before performing a poem is a literary analysis of that poem or “notes” towards performance of a poem.

SPEAKING AND LISTENINGHaving to perform a poem for an audience makes students explicitly aware of the impact that their words have on others. Particularly in student-generated slam poetry, students must gear their poems not just for their own enjoyment but to reach out and speak to others. Group poems offer a wonderful opportunity to practice collaborative skills as well.

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