The Power of Poetry in Performance

I’ve been home for the past few days recovering from a wee bout of walking pneumonia that has left me gasping and groaning like the zombie cast of The Walking Dead. I was told to rest bu,t I’ve come to realize that, with my education and my teaching, I have become a workaholic. My family had to literally rip my lesson plan notebook and my computer out of my hands while I hacked up a lung so I would rest. But I was able to sneak in some research while waiting at the doctor’s office.

I read an interesting article on Edutopia.org, “Kids Feel the Power of Poetry in Performance” about using slam poetry to get students involved and engaged in poetry. The article talks about one school’s experience of a non-profit group based out of New York called Global Writes “a nonprofit organization in the Bronx that works with local arts organizations to place professional poets in schools to coteach weekly with classroom instructors. During two 16-week sessions — almost a complete school year — students in grades 4-12 learn to write and deliver spoken-word poetry, preparing for slams with their peers”(Rubenstein, 2009). With Global Writes’ assistance, the class that Rubenstein profiles, was able to create such “intensity and vulnerability [through] students’ verse” that “is all the more potent in a place like school, where regimentation is usually the rule” (Rubenstein, 2009). The students became connected emotionally and personally to poetry sparking an enthusiasm in the written word we English teachers would go Macbeth for.

I had already incorporated spoken word-“a blend of literature and performance that culminates in live competitions called slams” that helps to “ transfor[m] […] these students from reluctant, shy, or diffident learners into passionate artists.” (Rubenstein, 2009)- into my grade 11 poetry unit for my practicum. I was going to have students study spoken word and then have some friends (who are actually spoken word artists) to come in and do a workshop with the students. But, like many artists, they were busy and never got back to me. Then it came to me during a coughing fit the other day, I didn’t need a fancy lesson plan with blow your socks off flash and flare, I just need to get them writing. I need to get them connecting poetry to their own struggles, beliefs, and personal lives. I need to help them find their voices. So, instead of some fancy workshop at the end of the unit like I had planned, the students are going to be writing slam poetry all throughout the unit. They can write as much as they want or only write one but they must write something about anything but it has to be something that they care about, something important to them, or something about themselves. They will write their pieces, revise, edit, share, re-craft and then later share these poems with their fellow classmates and me. I will write and share along with the students as well to create a shared environment of vulnerability and respect. I am hopeful that this written and performance aspect of the unit will have a similar impact on students as the students in Rubenstein’s article.