Oral Communication: Slam Poetry and Building Confidence

Imagine that you are sitting in a cafe with a delicious drink in front of you, surrounded by a group of people who are attentively listening to a speaker. This picture is what a typical poetry slam looks like.

Retrieved from http://www.inthesoil.on.ca/events/st-catharines-poetry-slam-showcase/

The top three words that I used to describe the experience of going to my first poetry slam were: community, appreciation, and comfortable. The community at the slam was a group of people who were united by a passion for thoughtful expression in the form of spoken poetry. As a poet myself, although I had never attended a slam before, I felt that I belonged to the community immediately since it was formed by what we do, not who we know. During the slam, everyone showed their appreciation for a poet and their poem by snapping their fingers during the performance. The appreciation was shown immediately, and was expressed when the poet said something was either cleverly worded, a thoughtful statement, or something that resonated with the listener. During every single poem performed that night, people were snapping their fingers. Both the physical and the emotional environments surrounding the slam were very comfortable. The cafe where we were sitting was a public space where anyone and everyone was invited that was also distanced from any academic evaluation, resulting in an accepting and safe environment.

Doing presentations or any form of public speaking is something that many people struggle with. If I were to introduce the idea of slam poetry into my classroom as a teacher, the many of my students would likely react negatively to the announcement, their groans echoing around the classroom while a couple students, perhaps part of the drama club, enthusiastically shout, "Yes!" I can understand why my students would feel nervous about doing slam poetry: first of all, it's poetry, which many students don't feel comfortable doing, and secondly, it's a performance, which many students don't feel comfortable doing.

Retrieved from http://www.hercampus.com/school/notre-dame/poetry-slam

Despite knowing how students may react when I announce the assignment, this is still something that I would love to do with a class, because I am confident that they will be thinking differently at the end once they have done their performances. Slam poetry, although a performance in front of people like a public speech or a debate, is very different from those sorts of performances. With a debate, you have to argue against someone else, and have your own stance challenged, and you can forget all of the research that you did earlier in the middle of the performance. With a speech, you stand in front of an audience that expects something from you, whether information or entertainment, and you might not have covered a point that they thought you should cover, or you told a joke that they didn't think was funny. These are two situations that are quite stressful. A poetry slam is different though, because there are no right or wrong answers. In fact, the poem that you present might be a question, not even an answer.

Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/st-louis-jewel-legacy-books-and-cafe-dancing-art-and-poetry-slam

Getting your students over the initial hump of actually writing a poem and becoming comfortable performing it may be hard, but the end result is very rewarding. Grace Rubenstein writes about how students become better writers, gain confidence, and become more comfortable presenting, which can be expected. However, not only do students become better in language arts, they also became more motivated, improved their social skills, had better attendance at school, and even did better in subjects like math. 

So, how do we actually teach slam poetry in the classroom? Gai Jones has some great tips on how to prepare students for a performance, like making sure that they are prepared before hand, and to do breathing exercises before performing to reduce nervousness. She not only suggests preparing the students for the performance, but also teaching the audience how to appropriately respond as well. By far the most important thing is to let the students practice, practice, practice, and then practice some more. I would tell my students that their first few performances will not be marked at all, so that they understand that slam poetry is supposed to be a safe place where people can take risks and experiment. Students can also practice slamming outside of school at a public poetry slam.

Writing: NaNoWriMo in the Classroom

For some people, November means cool weather, making hot chocolate to drink in front of a warm fire and pulling out the scarves and mittens, but for others, it means staring at computer screen and tapping keys a lot. I'm one of the latter group of people, and we participate in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which is a contest to write a 50,000 word novel in just a month. This year is my second time participating. I began doing NaNoWriMo as a personal challenge, but this is also a challenge that I hope to bring into my classroom as part of my language arts curriculum.

Retrieved from: http://www.steamboatbooks.com/event/nanowrimo-2015-national-novel-writing-month-kickoff-bud-werner-memorial-library

Inside the classroom, NaNoWriMo works quite similarly to Genius Hour where students are given time in class to work on a project of their own choosing, except that NaNoWriMo is a more focused project where students have to write a novel instead of choosing any type of project. Laura Bradley is one teacher who has her students participate in NaNoWriMo each year, and who has written extensively on both her personal blog and on Edutopia about her students' successes at completing their novels and about how to encourage and support them throughout the project. She has gotten great feedback from her students, such as:

"I looked forward to English class EVERY DAY. I always had new things to add to my novel so I would come in all happy even if my day started terrible. It always made me happy to walk into Mrs. Bradley's room and see her open up the laptop cart." - Michaella, 13

If you are not a novelist yourself, you may be confused about why a teacher would give up valuable class time for writing time. Perhaps you even agree with the idea that students should do creative writing since it is a good way to practice the writing skills required in the language arts curriculum with projects that interest them, but don't see why such a large project is necessary. When students participate in NaNoWriMo, they are learning far more than just how to properly use grammar and communicate an idea or theme. Writing a novel requires different skills that aren't as necessary in short stories and poetry, such as character development and subplots. Same as with short stories, the act of writing allows students to understand better what authors are doing in their novels, and so it helps improve their reading ability. Writing a novel also teaches students skills that aren't directly connected to language arts, such as organization, dedication, and persistence. A novel is a long project, and in order to successfully complete the project, students needs to use the planning skills that they have developed in other courses, or else their novel is likely going to become quite disorganized over the course of writing. Another wonderful thing about writing novels is how they tend to pull in elements from other subjects, causing writers to research topics ranging from history to science, making the project cross-curricular. Although writing a novel is quite difficult, Laura Bradley explains that "given a meaningful challenge, plus resources, support and lots of time to write, students will write with enthusiasm".

Miles Klee. (2013, Nov 1). Keep Calm and Write 50K [graphic]. Retrieved from http://www.dailydot.com/lol/weird-twitter-nanowrimo-openers/

The most important thing about a successful NaNoWriMo project is the transformation that happens in the student afterwards. Emily, Amanda, and Jacqueline are three girls who, because they participated in an after school writing program, gained confidence and the ability to speak up about important issues. The writing program and the supportive community formed around it encouraged skills that these girls may not have realized that they were capable of otherwise. The reason these girls developed these skills was because of the growth mindset that creative writing boosts. Michael Michalko writes about the Seven Tenets of Creative Thinking where he makes statements such as everyone is creative, creative writing requires hard work, and there is no single correct answer. When students believe these things, they will push past obstacles and create some amazing novels, and they will also carry this mindset with them into other areas of their life. 

Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/nanowrimoywp

The official NaNoWriMo organization supports student writers, and has a section of their website dedicated to them. On this website teachers can find lesson plans that directly link the NaNoWriMo project to the language arts curriculum and that give helpful suggestions for how to prepare students for the project. The organizers also realize that younger students do not have the same abilities as older ones, and so they have created word count guidelines for grades 1 through 12.