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High School Unit

“This is My Voice”: Slam Poetry in the High School Classrooma 4-week unit for an 11th/12th-grade Creative Writing classroom

by Jordan Kuszak, Katherine McKenzie, Cameron Mount, and Nate Polacek

B. Overview/Introduction

This unit is designed with the overall intention of introducing students to slam poetry and providing them with the skills and preparation necessary to create and perform their own slam. Slam poetry is a unique genre of creative writing with few constraints that dictate how it should be done. Slam also provides an avenue through which self-expression can be given a greater and farther reaching voice. It is this voice-enabling aspect of slam that inspired the title for this unit: “This is my Voice.” Every person has a voice but far too often students stifle theirsfor the false security of conformity. The safety of blending in creates a silence that juxtaposes thegreat many issues against which students should not only feel free to speak, but should also feel the need to speak. Slam poetry provides such an opportunity for students to express their own beliefs and convictions and the classroom setting allows it to be done in a safe and nurturing environment. Every student has a voice and this unit is designed to help each student find his or her own.

A unit on slam poetry must be taught with deliberation. It cannot be taught withoutconsideration of the sensitive nature and personal nuances inherent to slam poetry. Writing in general is a personal act of sharing and slam increases this disclosure by expecting a level of intimacy between a poet and his work. This perhaps is the greatest issue with teaching slam poetry. A teacher of slam must encourage personal expression without forcing it, enable genuine performance without demanding it, and provide a grade without stifling the creative nature of the art. The assessment issue is a unique one to slam in the classroom setting. Slam poetry in the public domain exists on the premise that assessment is counterintuitive to the art form. Competitions preach maxims such as, “The point is not the points, the point is the poetry.” However a unit is not complete without a rubric for formative or summative assessment and so teaching slam is most problematic for this reason. Therefore it must be taught in a way that acknowledges this issue in a sensitive and thoughtful way.

Keeping the intimacy of slam poetry in mind, this unit is designed with the assumptionthat a safe and enabling community has already been firmly established. Without this community, students cannot be expected to share openly and candidly in front of their peers. High school is a volatile time for adolescents who are constantly reminded of their differences

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and peculiarities and are told that these distinctions are bad. In slam, they are being asked to not only accept that which makes them unique, but to embrace it and share it with the class. Therefore, the classroom must be a space that naturally breaks down these barrios and this can only be accomplished through time spent together and teacher-driven exercises that promote community. In order to allow for the necessary time to build this environment, this unit is an ideal year-ending project. It will be a unit that exposes students to issues faced by their classmates or problems that impact the entire world. It will also be an exciting and enjoyable endeavor as substantial time will be spent viewing professional slam poetry and watching one another perform their own individual or collaborative pieces. The unit will provide a natural closure for the class as they are made more self-aware at a time when important life decisions will certainly be looming.

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These life-altering choices will be evident as this unit is designed for more advanced students. The lessons and content within the unit assume a level of maturity only possible in Junior or Senior level students and the expectations have been raised only befitting that of students soon to be graduating. This unit is also designed with the framework of a creative writing elective course. The emphasis on composition and creativity necessitate that much time already has been spent on the writing process in which students have been exposed to and scaffolded on the appropriate strategies of revision and the etiquette of peer-workshopping. In order to effectively introduce and prepare students to perform their own slams, the unit will encompass four weeks in which proper modeling will insure that each student feels confident composing his or her own piece or a collaborative piece. Because this unit is anticipated to fall at the end of the year, it is essential that what comes before properly guides students in the process of writing poetry and public speaking. Due to the nature of the course, it can be assumed that writing creatively is a common focus of every unit and that sharing writing is encouraged and expected. Students should not be surprised or overwhelmed by the guidelines put forth in this unit.

To the students:Each of you has a voice, unique and unlike anyone else’s. You voice is often the truest

measure of who you are and what you believe in. However, voice can also be silenced and even misleading, spreading like wildfire a you who is not you at all. As Dr. Seuss once wrote, “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You,” and beginning today you are going to learn how your voice is the greatest instrument you have to show the world who you are. As we’ve been discussing all year long, creative writing is a vehicle for self- expression and slam poetry is an even greater avenue by which you can articulate that which you feel most strongly about. Slam is a genre of poetry that is not restricted by form or conventions and will allow you the freedom to better express the true you. In the end you will be given the opportunity to perform, an imperative aspect of slam, your own piece and explore how yourvoice can enhance your words. The community we have established together will bestrengthened as we discover what makes slam poetry a unique and powerful art form and how it can be used as a call for social and personal justice.

C. Understandings/Big Ideas

• LA 12.2.2 Writing Genres: Students will write for a variety of purposes and audiences in multiple genres.

• LA 12.3.1 Speaking Skills: Students will develop, apply, and refine speaking skills to communicate key ideas in a variety of situations.

Through our unit, students will develop the poetry writing (LA 12.2.2) and performance (12.3.1) skills relevant to expressing social change to an audience. The genre of slam poetry is embedded in community, seen in its competitive, social nature and subject matter which is often tightly linked with calls for change. Merging a social dynamic with the critical thinking involved in wide-scale change turns the classroom into a “community of inquiry,” which “emphasizes dialogue, deliberation, and the strengthening of judgement and community” (Lipman 230). This setting allows students to see their own identities and beliefs as they exist in

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tandem with society as a whole. In authentic social dialogue such as this, “disequilibrium is enforced in order to compel forward movement,” and the critical thinking skills developed are viewed in genuinely dynamic terms applicable to real-world contexts (87). The “purposes” expressed in our big ideas are authentic and personal, the “audiences” are a genuine community of peers, and the “situations” are a powerful and engaging social setting. The slam poetry genre thus provides a powerful foundation for fostering communicative language skills.

Generally speaking, these principles are rooted in Smagorinsky’s unit rationale of “civic awareness” (Smagorinsky 143). Through our unit, students come to their writing as a socialforce, using the lens of the poetry genre “to act responsibly for a more equitable, democratic, and dynamic society,” and seeing the range of perspectives in the classroom (and in mentor texts) as“driven by different social goals [and] different types of conscience” (143). Though our unit capitalizes on other justifications as well (such as “psychology,” in the importance of identity tohigh-schoolers, and “preparation for future needs” involving the tools of rhetoric), our group chose to ground our unit in “civic awareness” as a way to clearly guide students fromconsideration of the expressive individual self toward consideration of the self as an active citizen. Here, we had Dewey in mind as well, viewing the role of education as “giving shape tohuman powers and adapting them to social service” (Dewey 23).

Essential Questions1. How does the performance of poetry affect, enhance, or alter meaning, as compared to the

effect of language conventions in written poetry?2. How can Slam Poetry broaden the range of voices, styles, cultural traditions, and approaches

as compared to “normal poetry?”3. How can poetry serve as a catalyst for social change? To what extent is Slam Poetry an

innately rebellious genre?4. In what ways can Slam Poetry enable self-expression? How can it inform and express identity?

Each of our Essential Questions points toward and propels our two long-term goals. #1 (How does the performance of poetry affect, enhance, or alter meaning, as compared to the effect of language conventions in written poetry?) addresses students’ recognition of how both performance elements (gesture, tone, pausing, etc) and written elements (metaphor, repetition, imagery, etc) are inextricably linked in constructing meaning. This speaks to the UbD facet of understanding of interpretations, unpacking the “contextual and specific” meaning behinddistinct rhetorical choices in order to “[bring] any ‘text’ to life” (Wiggins 91, 90).

#2 (How can Slam Poetry broaden the range of voices, styles, cultural traditions, and approaches as compared to “normal poetry?”) addresses students’ understanding of the scope of Slam Poetry as a genre. This speaks to the UbD facet of understanding of explanation, by ensuring that students are able to “note how it [i.e., slam poetry] operates or functions...to see it in its relations to other things [i.e., “normal poetry]” (86).

#3 (How can poetry serve as a catalyst for social change? To what extent is SlamPoetry an innately rebellious genre?) addresses the rhetorical power of Slam Poetry as students embed their own poems in dynamic, social, culturally-aware purposes, and transfer it into practical contexts. This addresses the UbD facets of understanding of perspective and application. It provides perspective by demonstrating the “big picture” of poetry as a legitimate catalyst for change (84). This essential question also poses the principles of slam poetry as tools for change, letting students ‘synthesize’ and ‘reinvent’ their knowledge beyond the classroom

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(93, 94).

Like #3, #4 (In what ways can Slam Poetry enable self-expression? How can it informand express identity?) deals with students’ purposes as writers and performers. Since Slam Poetry is a deeply personal genre, it is necessary to explicitly consider the social change aspects from the vantage point of self-expression and identity. This speaks to the UbD facets of understanding of self-knowledge and empathy. The former is addressed in students thinking critically about their identities as they examine “unexamined models, theories, analogies, and viewpoints” surrounding concepts that define them (101). Empathy comes into play in the consideration of self-expression on the social scale of a slam performance, where performers open themselves up in order for audience members to “get inside another person’s feelings and worldview” (98).

Through engaging with this unit, we want students to hone rhetorical (using criticalthinking, especially) and expressive (using creative thinking, especially) skills toward the practical purpose of enacting change. Through this purpose, we hope to move students toward a greater appreciation of themselves as social citizenry, echoing Dewey’s belief that “all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race” (Dewey17).

D. Enabling Knowledge & Skills (Short Term Goals)

In planning our Slam Poetry Unit, we have recognized the importance that reading, writing, presentation, and audience each play in the genre of slam poetry as a whole. In watching slam, each of these areas build off each other in order to create an entity that is greater than its individual parts. First, slam poetry is expertly written and has its own structure hinging on elements of tone, voice, symbolism, metaphor while at the same time giving the poet ample room for his or her interpretation. The ability to read slam poetry is also necessary—in reading, students can spend more time analyzing the intricacies of the pieces by looking at the strategic elements that have been put in place. However, the real appeal of slam poetry is the presentational aspect. Hundreds of slam poetry events take place every year and thousands of slam clips can be found with a quick youtube search. The presentation brings an entire newelement to slam poetry with how the poets are able to elicit emotion and passion from themselves to the audience. Based on these layers, we have put together the following short-term goals from the Nebraska Language Arts Standards in order to adequately focus and assess student’s immediate and short-term growth.

Speaking and ListeningLA 12.3.1.b Demonstrate and adjust speaking techniques for a variety of purposes and situations.

One of our essential questions is “How does slam poetry change when performed? How does performance add or take away?” With this in mind, one of our short term goals is to have students focus on how to present their individually written slam poem. When looking at slam poetry, poets typically bring multiple speaking techniques into the same poem to emphasize different aspects. For example, when poets want their audience to think seriously, their voices slow down and their tone gets deeper. When slam poets want their audience to feel especially emotionally charged, they normally speak faster and increase the volume of their voices. Therefore, the ability to demonstrate and adjust different speaking techniques is paramount for

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communicating and presenting slam poetry. By the end of the unit, students will be able to demonstrate these speaking techniques in their presentation of their slam poem. One particular activity we use to show the importance of speaking techniques starts with students reading the transcript of a slam poem. The students then use their individual speaking techniques to anticipate speaking strategies the poet would use to elicit a response from the audience. After the students have their own theories on speaking techniques, the class will listen to the poetperforming the piece in order to see differences in strategy. From this activity, students will not only hear differences but will put those ideas to practice in the presentation of their own slam poem therefore giving students the short-term skills to not only write, read, and interpret, but to present and speak.

LA 12.3.2.c Listen to and evaluate the clarity, quality and effectiveness of important points, arguments, and evidence being communicated

This objective focuses on the short-term goal of critical evaluation. Instead of observing slam, this objective calls for students to critique and analyze the effectiveness of poems, presentations and their own work. Is the work clear? Does it have a clear message? Is this a good or a bad thing? Through this objective, students will use critical thinking skills to look at slam poetry in order to decide which pieces of the poem are effective and which elements could use revision.

Reading

LA 12.1.4.c Recognize and represent writer’s tone and style while reading individually or in groups (e.g., change genre of text to perform orally)

Through the slam poetry unit, we find it necessary to focus on tone and style while reading. Poetry, especially slam poetry, is a medium of self-expression. Each slam poet brings his or her individual tone and style to their piece. Focusing on tone and style as a short-term goal allows the student to interpret how writer’s voice influences the piece of writing. Tone is essentialwhen studying a genre such as slam poetry. In presentation, the listener can understand tone through the vehicle of the poet’s voice. In reading, students must be able to recognize a poet’s tone through their writing.Recognizing a poet’s tone gives the student the tools to better understand the poet’s goals andmotives for writing. Recognizing the poet’s style is also an essential short-term goal. A slam poet’s goal is to illicit an emotional response from the audience—in competition, this is how poets are scored. Besides their tone, their style of representing their poem is key in which elements of the poem are emphasized. As the unit moves into writing, students will need these reading skills in order to recognize and represent elements of other poet’s writing in order to analyze and emulate which pieces of the slam poem the students want to incorporate into their own writing.

Writing

LA 12.2.2.d Analyze models and examples (own and others’) of various genres in order to create a similar piece

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LA 12.2.2.b Write considering typical characteristics of the selected genre (e.g., resume, brochure, web page/blog, news article, job application and accompanying cover letter, senior project, college application essay)

In scaffolding our final presentation for our unit, we have the short-term goal that students will be able to analyze works that they have read, interpret stylistic, thematic, or formatic elements that they enjoy and then write their own original piece based on a model that they have chosen. This accomplished two short-term objectives. First, students will be able to successfully analyze a piece of writing for its own individual parts. Students will be able to distinguish different elements of a poem that are particularly creative and unique. Second, students will fulfill the writing requirement listed above. The creation of a similar piece of writing gives students the initial opportunity to write their own slam poem while having an idea of where they are going. This also ties into our essential question, “How can Slam Poetry broaden the range of voices, styles, cultural traditions, and approaches as compared to “normal poetry?” Through this objective, students will be able to define slam poetry and be able to illustrate elements of the genre in their own writing.

E. Assessments, collected evidence, and criteria:

In assessing our students’ understanding of slam poetry as a vehicle for social change, we will have them work very closely with the form in one of three capacities. At the unit’s end they will have the opportunity to either: individually create and perform an original slam poem, collaboratively create and perform an original slam poem, or write an analysis of a favorite slam poem and its themes in relation to their own lives. All three of these potential final products will facilitate our students’ understanding of the big ideas around which our unit is structured:• LA 12.2.2 Writing Genres: Students will write for a variety of purposes and audiences in multiple genres.• LA 12.3.1 Speaking Skills: Students will develop, apply, and refine speaking skills to communicate key ideas in a variety of situations.

I. Major Products:

1. Final assessment:A) Individual Performance Piece for unit’s end: Students will have the option of concluding our study of slam poetry and its utility as a petition for social change by individually creating and performing an original slam poem. Their understanding of the typical written and presentational characteristics of slam poetry will be assessed according to the attached rubric assessing students’ understanding of these characteristics (Written component: use of elements of poetry and literary devices, clear subject and theme, “correct” mechanics and usage, interaction of presentationaland written components, overall impact; Presentation component: body language—eyecontact, gestures, facial expressions—verbal cues—pauses, control of pace, volume, and tone—practice—has practiced with a classmate as well as the teacher for feedback—overall impact)

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B) Collaborative Piece: Slam poetry is intensely democratic in a way that few—if any—other forms of poetry can attest to. This is because of the integral component that not only the poet’s interaction with the audience plays in slam poetry, but also the possibility for the interaction of multiple poets in the presentation of the same piece. After studying slam poetry in its collaborative capacity, students will have the optionof collaboratively creating and performing an original poem following a rubric verysimilar to that of the individual piece with the addition of criteria assessing collaborative input in the writing and presentation of the poem.

C) Slam poetry analysis: While it is our goal to get our students to understand the power of slam poetry as a vehicle for social change by experiencing the writing and performing of a slam poetry piece first hand, we understand that our students may be able to express their understanding in different ways. Additionally, while we will do all that we can to create a classroom environment in which our students will feel comfortable presenting and responding to poetry, some students still may be uncomfortable performing for the teacher or their peers. One such alternative may be for students to choose a favorite slam poetry performance piece and conduct research into the author and other contextual factors (location, time period, and other factorsthat influenced the theme) that the author brought to the writing of the poem. After analyzing the poem in this way in an essay format, students would then write about what they bring to the poem in terms of connective experiences, performative modifications, and understanding of the poet’s intended goal and success in achieving said goal. This option will not be explicitly stated as an alternative to the performance. Rather, if a student or parent expresses concern to us personally about his/her comfort level with the performance assignment, we will have this project in our back pocket to avoid the possibility of making what may be the student’s first slam poetry experience a negative one.

2. Assessment of participation in peer/facilitator feedback: The genre of slam poetry is bound to be an unknown quantity for many students going in--in terms of not only the written, but also the performance component. As such, students will be participating in regular small and large group peer feedback circles to perform for and respond to the written and performative aspects of their peers’ pieces. Additionally, students will be required to practice their piece for the teacher(s) to ensure they are adequately grasping the performance quotient of slam poetry. In this way, students will be meeting our short term goal of demonstrating and adjusting speaking techniques for a variety of purposes and situations (LA 12.3.1.b).

3. Assessment of daily writing: The inspiration for an impactful slam poem cannot be expected to come from out of the blue. Students will respond to semi-daily writing prompts on a numberof topics in writing journals to build a body of work from which to draw a functional slam poem.This way, students will have a considerable amount of time to get a feel for the genre as they write and respond to prompts, emulating the style of slam poetry, before they are expected to produce a polished performance piece. This regular exercise will aid our students in achieving our short term goal of writing while considering typical characteristics of a selected genre (LA12.2.2.b).

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II. Potential products:

1. Companion poems: To scaffold students into an understanding of how to write slam poetry, we may have them write slam poems imitating the stylistic or thematic qualities of a slam poem of their choice. This exercise will help our students develop an understanding of how to analyze models and examples of various genres in order to create a similar piece (short term goal LA12.2.2.d).

2. Analysis and annotation of slam poems for written and spoken characteristics: Before students can create their own slam poems, it will be hugely beneficial for them to spend some time analyzing the written and spoken characteristics of select poems that display an abundance of tonal and stylistic cues typical of high-caliber slam poetry. Students will complete their analyses in a variety of capacities, be it individually, or in small and large groups. This analysis will be key in helping our students achieve the short term learning goal of coming to recognize and represent writer’s tone and style while reading individually or in groups (LA 12.1.4.c).

III. Final Assessment Rationale:

What better way for our students to reach an understanding of slam poetry’s unique ability to incite the type of emotional response conducive to change on a social as well as an individual level than by having them experience the writing, performing, and receiving of slam poetry first hand? They will come to understand the techniques slam poets use to write and perform emotionally evocative pieces by going through the writing and staging processes involved with creating a performance level slam poem. By serving as fully receptive audience members for the performances of their peers and experienced slam poets, they will also come to understand how to appeal to an audience through their experiences as members of an audience responsible for closely watching and listening to a performance in order to offer constructive peer feedback.

If we take an understanding to be defined as “an inference drawn from facts,” we need to consider what kinds of inferences we want our students to draw from their experiences with the content of our unit (McTigue, Wiggins 132). We are placing a heavy emphasis on the written aspect of slam poetry—as in, what devices, language, and structural choices do slam poets make in order to communicate meaning to their intended audience? However, while we want our students to understand how slam poets use language effectively to communicate meaning to a specific audience, we are primarily concerned with impressing upon our students the knowledge of why slam poets make the design decisions they do. In this instance, we want our students to understand the utility of the typical language, devices, and structural choices of slam poets towards inciting an emotional response in an audience. Once our students understand how these written characteristics help slam poets achieve their intended goal, however, we want them to understand how writers use these and other characteristics of writing to achieve their mutually situationally dependent goals. Key in this understanding is an understanding of audience, and by asking our students to write and perform for an audience, we believe we are effectively facilitating an understanding of how writers can use the traits we are covering to affect meaning in any situation—be it a poetry slam or an analytic essay.

For the written portion of the assessment, we will be focusing on students’ ability to effectively use literary techniques in varying capacities. Students are required to include one

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instance of metaphor, vivid imagery, and repetition in their poem. Also, students are required to include one instance of two of the following literary techniques: alliteration, rhythm, onomatopoeia, irony, juxtaposition, or parallelism. These techniques are all used commonly in poetry to evoke an emotional response from readers and will suit our poetry slam well because of slam poetry’s inherent focus on evoking an emotional response from the audience. Our goal is to get our students to understand the reason for our choosing these techniques is related to the context for which they are writing—that is, they are writing to appeal emotionally to an audience and these techniques will allow them to do that especially well. It is our hope that when our students need to appeal to an audience’s emotions in a different context in the future, they will recall the literary techniques that are best suited to that purpose, as per the concept of transferability, with which we can “transfer what we have learned to new and sometimes confusing settings” (McTigue, Wiggins 40).

A hands-on performance of slam is useful not only in leading students to an understanding of the verbal techniques slam poets use to reach their audiences, but also an understanding of how individuals speaking in any public capacity might affect the performanceof their presentation to effectively reach their audience. Our students will come to understand theutility of the types of verbal cues typically put to use by slam poets in a variety of scenarios. The reasoning behind this is that slam poets must be aware of their audience in a way that few other types of public speakers are required to be, as slam “sets itself apart by displaying a keen awareness of its presentation in front of an audience and its public judgment by that audience” (Somers-Willett 52). The features of our assessments and deep involvement with slam poetry and the slam poetry community will leave our students with an understanding that the verbal cuesand body language of slam poetry performance can be used in a variety of public speaking scenarios with the appropriate variation of the extent and intent to which the cues and language are put.

Similar to the written portion of the rubric, the performance portion will focus onassessing students’ ability to appeal to their audience, but with body language and verbal cues, rather than the written language of their pieces. As far as verbal cues go, we will focus on students’ ability to pause for effect and exercise control over the tone, volume, and rate at which they speak. For critiquing effective body language use, we will focus on students’ ability to use gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions to communicate they meaning of their poem beyond the words written on the page. We believe these examples of verbal cues and body language are the most commonly used performance techniques in slam poetry, and it makes sense to assessour students by their ability to use them. Once again, however, we will be looking to emphasizethe transferable potential of the skilled use of body language and verbal cues. It is more than likely that our students are going to have to speak publicly in some capacity beyond our classroom or the slam poetry stage. These performance techniques are useful for any public speaking situation as long as you know why you are using them. Because of the focus on emotional appeals, slam poetry relies a great deal on modulating the volume and rate of speech to extremes to convey the extent to which the speaker is emphasizing a certain emotion. It is our hope, however, that our students will develop the understanding that the extent to which you modulate the volume, rate, tone, etc. of your speech depends highly on the context in which you are speaking. If you are delivering a persuasive speech, for example, you may still speak noticeably slower to make sure a point is understood. In this way, we are truly hitting on the “variety of situations” component of LA 12.3.1.

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F. Planning For Learning

Overview/Rationale For Unit OrganizationAs you will see below, this unit is sequenced from a consideration of personal expression

toward expression of social identity, culminating in an active slam poetry presentation. Week 1 lays the foundation by expanding the notion of “poetry,” building off of students’ existing schemas through exercises in contrast. Smagorinsky speaks to this strategy when he says that “[w]e can really understand only those things that are familiar to us or similar to things we already understand, so comparing and contrasting the unfamiliar with the familiar is one of the most important techniques for writing” and that “[i]nsights into any given work are partly the results of experience in reading others because concepts grow by comparison and contrast” (25,118).

The use of “Louder Than a Bomb” as a focus in Week 1 speaks to our desire to build students’ confidence in their writing and performing identities. The film portrays teens as poets and asserts the idea of slam poetry as a common language, invoking Peter Johnston’s assertion that “[t]his kind of conversation requires developing an understanding of what poets...do, and the students construct these understandings and ways of talking and acting in the classroom” (Johnston 23). In other words, this portrayal invites students to confidently try on a poet identity, a necessary step if students are to engage their whole self with the writing process.

After Week 1 establishes a writing identity, Week 2 seeks primarily to give that identity a voice, moving from consideration of tone and voice into issues of personal and social importance. This is where momentum is created, by prizing fluent expression and investment before moving into more focused study. In a way, this hearkens to Lipman’s note that “in contrasting conversation and dialogue we cannot help seeing in conversation a process in which the personal note is strong but the logical thread is weak, whereas in dialogue just the reverse in the case” (Lipman 87). Week 2 thus enables open “conversation” in the classroom, working on a thematic and expressive level, before honing that expression with rhetoric, logic, and deliberate skill.

Week 3 builds from this energy with a focus on the skills and conventions that go intowriting. Stressed often is the fact that these skills are tools to enable and bolster expression, not concepts devoid from it, upholding the “fluency” of the previous week. The principle guiding this week is UbD’s reminder that “[s]kills are means, not ends; the aim is fluent, flexible, and effective performance” (Wiggings 113). Giving this idea momentum and incentive is a Friday visit to UNL, where students’ will see these skills embodied in a college classroom.

Now armed with identity, voice, and skill, Week 4 shifts students into the role ofperformers in a social setting. The week capitalizes on the college visit’s modelling of confident speaking, and prepares students to use active voice, captivating language, and expressive cues to persuade and engage in a slam poetry community. This week draws on Smagorinsky’s belief that “a conceptual unit should provide opportunities for students to read and think about what their classmates have produced in relation to the unit concepts,” letting students see their learning not in isolation, but in a supportive social matrix (118).

Thus, the unit is sequenced in a deliberate manner, establishing students’ identities as writers, fostering their voices, honing their skills, and finally presenting the result of that growth in a social setting representative of the “social change” theme slam poetry stands for.

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Slam Poetry Unit CalendarDay 1: Introduction toSlam Poetry: How is slampoetry different from and similarto conventional poetry?

Day 2: Introduction toSlam Poetry: View Louderthan a Bomb

Day 3: View second half ofLouder than aBomb: Whattopics do slam poets typically write about? What range of emotions can slam be used to convey?

Day 4: Elements of a strongperformance

Day 5: Breaking down a slampoem—elements and in-contextgrammar

Day 6: Tone and voice in slampoetry

Day 7: “Rebellion” infrom—elements of form in slam poetry

Day 8: The theme ofrebellion in slam poetry

Day 9: Self- expression inrebellion: a call for change

Day 10: Guest speaker: slampoet

Day 11: Begin writing slampoem as a group

Day 12: Finish group poem

Day 13: Workshop day:group discussion andfeedback

Day 14: Continue to workshoppoems

Day 15: Field trip: observe acollege class:compare andcontrast slam poetry

Day 16: Activevoice

Day 17: Avoidingclichés and juxtaposition

Day 18: Modeleffective verbal cues:

Day 19:Presentation day

Day 20:Presentation day

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Daily Plans

Week 1

Day 1 (Monday): This is My Voice

Although by this point we can expect our students to have been exposed to a variety of poetry, they may not have had a lot of exposure to slam poetry. Today will be spent orienting students to the nature of slam poetry by first having them write about and discuss what they already think they know about poetry. Then, we will observe and discuss “This is my voice” to give students an introduction to what slam poetry can look, sound, and feel like. Today we will lay the groundwork of getting our students to understand that while slam poetry is poetry in the same way that traditional poetry is poetry, it is a unique form and its nuances must be respected. To this end, students will be working towards answering the following essential questions and completing the following objectives:

Essential Questions:1. What can (and can’t) be considered “poetry?”2. How is slam poetry different from and similar to conventional poetry?

Objectives:1. Students will identify characteristics of conventional poetry.2. Students will demonstrate a surface level understanding of the differences that exist

between slam poetry and conventional poetry.

Procedures:[5 minutes] Semi-daily writing prompt—What is poetry? What are some characteristics that poetry must have for it to be considered poetic?

[10 minutes] Share results of writing with the group and have the class produce a volunteer(s) to record the characteristics on the board. Which are most universal or important? Review terms if necessary.

[3 minutes] Hand out lyrics and show video—“This is my Voice,” by Shane Koyczan

[5 minutes] Discuss—Is what we just saw poetry? Why or why not? Refer to student-generated list of poetic characteristics.

[10 minutes] In pairs, consider those characteristics deemed most universal or important. Examine the lyrics of “This is my voice” and identify literary characteristics (metaphor, vivid imagery, repetition, alliteration, parallelism, irony, juxtaposition, etc) as they crop up.

[3 minutes] Show video once more.

[14 minutes] Each pair will bring their observations to a large group discussion addressing how the written poetic characteristics students identified interact with the performance of the poem.

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Day 2 (Tuesday): Louder Than a Bomb

In the same way that our slam poetry unit requires a near complete reconsideration of what is or is not poetry, our students are also going to need to reconsider what it means to be a poet. A poet does not require a book deal, mastery of every form of poetry, and a dusty copy of Shakespeare’s collected works sitting on his/her bookshelf to be a poet. To be considered a poet simply requires that one is a creator of poetry. By the unit’s end, we want our students to acknowledge their potential as creators of poetry capable of producing work that can affect the landscape of their social spheres. We will lay the groundwork for this understanding early on by watching the documentary, Louder than a Bomb, which follows students from four Chicago high schools as they work towards competing in the annual “Louder than a Bomb” high school poetry festival in Chicago. It is our hope that by seeing students like themselves in the roles oflegitimate creators and performers of slam poetry, our own students will become aware of theirown potential as creators and performers of slam poetry—which is absolutely necessary for our final class-wide poetry slam competition to be a success.

Essential Questions:1. What does it mean to be a poet? Do poets have inherent characteristics?2. Why write? To what ends do poets--specifically slam poets--write towards?

Objectives:1. Students will be able to describe the anatomy of a poetry slam.2. Students will be able to identify the primary characters and their motivations, as

witnessed in Louder than a Bomb.3. Students will begin compiling a list of purposes for which slam poets write to

serve them in their writing in the weeks to come.

Procedures:[5 minutes] Introduce Louder than a Bomb documentary and “Louder than a Bomb” youthpoetry festival in Chicago, as well as comprehension and response questions.

[45 minutes] Show first half hour (approx. 36 minutes) of Louder than a Bomb documentary, pausing intermittently to give rise to discussion and check for student comprehension of documentary. While watching the video, students will be recording responses to the following questions, among others as they arise, in their writing journals: What strikes you about the documentary? About the kids, their environments/situations, and their poetry? Comprehension- wise, who are the main characters? Based on your current knowledge of slam poetry, what is a poetry slam? More importantly, what does slam poetry represent for these kids--for what purposes do they write?

Homework: For the discussion at the beginning of the next class, students will bring their answers to the final question pertaining to the reasons for which slam poets write.

Day 3 (Wednesday): Inspiration

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We’ve established that the most important component to being a poet is that you must write. However, it can be a struggle to find the motivation or inspiration to write. Where the first half-hour of the documentary reveals a lot about the nature of the poets in the documentary, the second half-hour of Louder than a Bomb focuses on the sources from which the poets draw their ideas, the motivations that drive them to write, and how these both help the poets develop their authorial voices. One of the biggest hurdles between students and slam poetry may be their reluctance to see themselves as poets. The more they write, the easier it will be for them to see themselves as poets, and the greater their awareness of what forces inspire and motivate poets, the more motivated and inspired to write they will be. The focus of the viewing today will be to get students thinking about these vital aspects of writing, namely: Where do poets get their ideas and how are they motivated to pursue them?

Essential Questions:1. From where do poets draw inspiration? What topics and emotions are especially

inspiring?2. What motivational forces exist that spur poets to write?

Objectives:1. Students will come to an understanding of the various topics and emotions

available to slam poets that serve as motivational and inspirational forces.2. Students will demonstrate the above understanding by beginning to build a list of

possible topics to write slam poems about, as well as possible emotions they would wantto draw from in their writing.

Procedures:[10 minutes] Large class discussion of the last question from the previous class: for whatpurposes do slam poets write? Students recorded examples in their writing journals during the previous class and we will spend a short amount of time before continuing the video compiling a class list of reasons for which slam poets write.

[40 minutes] Show second half hour (Approx. 33 minutes) of Louder than a Bomb documentary, following a procedure similar to the previous day in which students must answer questions about and respond to the documentary with intermittent pauses to foster brief large class discussion. The questions students will be considering today are as follows: Where do poets get ideas (activities, family life, personal life frustrations, etc.)? How do poets get motivated to write?What do you use as motivation? Does slam poetry have to be angry? What range of emotions canslam poetry be used to convey? What range of topics are you seeing so far and what might you add to that list of typical slam poetry topics?

Homework: For the discussion at the beginning of the next class, think of the answers you recorded to the questions: Where do poets get ideas? What topics do slam poets typically write about? What range of emotions can slam poetry be used to convey?

Day 4 (Thursday): Beyond the Stage

While one of the primary hurdles standing in between our students and the slam poetry

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stage may be their reluctance to see themselves as writers and poets, a similarly daunting hurdle is likely related to the stage itself, in that our students may be reluctant to view themselves as performers of slam poetry. The final 30 minutes of the Louder than a Bomb documentary is flush with impactful slam poetry performances by the young people that have served as the main characters of the documentary thus far. Owing to the emotional connections that our studentswill have made with these teens by this point, this segment is easily the most emotionallyevocative and will serve as an inspirational linchpin for our students to come to an understanding of why the performance aspect of slam poetry is so important. While the focus of today’sviewing will be on the performance of slam poetry, today will also give us an opportunity to come to a global understanding of what slam poetry and the Louder than a Bomb documentary.In thinking about the importance of the performances that take place on the stage, students will be better prepared to think about how slam poetry is bigger than what happens on the stage,especially in terms of the poetry itself and the sense of community that comes from an event in which people from an incredibly diverse array of backgrounds bring their perspectives to theirpoetry and performances.

Essential Questions:1. How do vocal and physical cues affect performances of slam poetry?2. How is the impact of slam poetry felt beyond the confines the stage?

Objectives:1. Students will begin to develop an understanding of what physical and vocal

characteristics make for a powerful performance.2. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the value of the documentary by

recording and sharing their responses to it, as per the comprehension and discussion questions they will consider during the viewing.

Procedures:[10 minutes] Large class discussion of the questions assigned for homework. Similar to the first10 minutes of the previous class, student examples will be compiled into a class list to serve asinspirational material from which students may get ideas for their writing in the coming weeks.

[35 minutes] Show the final segment (Approx. 30 minutes) of the Louder than a Bomb documentary, following a procedure similar to the previous two days in which students must answer questions about and respond to the documentary with intermittent pauses to foster brief large class discussion. The questions students will be considering today are as follows: How do people judge poetry--and art in general? Are the criteria used by poetry slam judges sufficient? If not, how should poetry slams be judged? What about a performance makes it powerful (body language, control of volume, tone, and rate of voice, etc.)? How is slam poetry bigger than what takes place on the stage? In other words, the Louder than a bomb motto is “The point is the poetry, not the points,” so from their point of view, it’s all about the poetry students bring to the festival. Tell me what you think it’s all about (the poetry, bringing people together, winning, finding yourself, speaking out, etc.).

[5 minutes] Hand out summative assignment handout, “This is my Voice,” inform students what the final assessment will consist of, and hand out field trip permission forms, informing them

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that the forms must be turned in before they can go.

Homework: Consider the performances you witnessed today and bring a short list of characteristics for what you think made the performances especially impactful. Be thinking especially of the physical actions and vocal traits of the performances.

Day 5: Friday (In-context grammar lesson: Punctuating Poetry)

Now that students have been inundated with the viewing and hearing of slam poetry, it is time to dig into the anatomy of an actual slam poem and poetry performance. Today we will be discussing the characteristics of the language, vocal cues, and body language that make a slam poetry piece successful in performance by using Taylor Mali’s “Totally, like whatever, you know?” as a model. We want our students to begin to see how the language, vocal cues, and body language used by slam poets all work together to create a powerful slam poem. Specifically, we’ll be looking at how punctuation can be used to tie all three components together. To create an effective slam poem the language, vocal cues, and body language all have to be given equal consideration and a close analysis of Mali’s poem will give students a good look at how experienced slam poets go about crafting the written and performance aspects to create a well-rounded slam poem. Splitting students into groups to focus on these different aspects will allow us to most effectively manage the time spent analyzing Mali’s poem while putting students in the driver’s seat of the discussion so that each group can share their unique insights with the class at large.

Essential Questions:1. How does the written language of a poem affect the vocal cues and body language of a

slam performance, and vice versa?2. How do poets use—or neglect—punctuation to communicate meaning?

Objectives:1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of how to identify specific vocal and physical

traits of slam poetry performances by watching, listening to, and reading a slam piece.2. Students will come to an understanding of how the written language, vocal modalities,

and body language of a slam poetry performance all work together to make a complete, impactful performance.

3. Students will develop an understanding of how punctuation plays into both the writing and reading of poetry.

4. Students will begin brainstorming ideas for their final slam piece.

Procedures:[5 minutes] Return of the semi-daily journal entry. Students will use this free write as anopportunity to brainstorm about topics, ideas, and reasons for which they could see themselves writing a slam poem. If they need inspiration or motivation, they can refer to the class lists compiled during the previous classes.

[8 minutes] Students will break into four small groups and will be handed unpunctuated copies of Taylor Mali’s “Totally, like whatever, you know?” A student volunteer will attempt to read

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the unpunctuated copy and a brief discussion of the difficulties he/she may have experienced will follow.

[10 minutes] Watch Taylor Mali’s performance of “Totally, like whatever, you know?” In each of the four groups, each student will watch the performance for a different performance characteristic and mark each of its occurrences on their unpunctuated lyric sheet. Students watching for an interrogative tone will appropriately mark their sheets question marks. Students watching for pauses will appropriately mark their sheets with either periods or commas, depending on their assignment. Students watching for increases in volume will appropriately mark their sheets with exclamation points. These are not the only punctuation marks we’ll be looking at, but because they are the most common and understandable, they will be what the students will primarily be looking for. If there are more students than there are available punctuation marks students will be instructed to mark notable body language as it occurs.

[15 minutes] Small groups share what they noticed as far as the interplay of the language of the poem with the vocal modalities of the speaker and—technology permitting—student volunteers will mark their observations from their lyrics sheet on a master copy via an Elmo or projector. As a large group, we will center discussion on the master copy and reconcile the observed punctuation with the actual punctuation of the poem, noting similarities and differences (notevery pause requires a comma, period, etc; some commas and periods are run over, etc.) andconsider how additional punctuation marks (dashes, hyphens, quotation marks, ellipses) at use in the poem affect the reading.

[10 minutes] If there were a sufficient number of students to have watched and marked the performance for body language, they will contribute their observations to the master copy. We will then watch the performance once again as a large group and every student will watch for and mark body language as it appears to confirm or add to their peers’ observations. A discussion on the coincidence of punctuation and body language/vocal cues will ensue (How does punctuation direct the performance of the piece? Does it at all? Why does Mali move or speak a certain wayat different points? Are his decisions to move and speak the way he does effective?).

[2 minutes] Assign homework for the weekend, instructing students to take note of one of the items from their free write at the beginning of class, one from the class list of topics/idea, or something different of their own design, as per the homework instructions.

Homework: Consider the free write you completed during the first few minutes of class. At some point during the weekend, pick one of the things you wrote about, one of the ideas/topics fromthe class list, or something completely different and write about it to begin planning what youmight write a slam poem about and how you might go about writing it.

Week 2

Day 1 (Monday): Tone/Voice:

Day 5 of week 1 is an important scaffolding day--this is the students’ first sustained

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looked at slam poetry and what specific elements the poet uses both in the writing and presentation of the piece, two major areas that affect slam poetry but also in the students’ final presentation. With the importance of these ideas, we wanted to make sure we took an extra day to continue to scaffold from Friday. We continue to delve into tone and voice. Poetry is an expressive form of literature and voice is key in an author’s presence in the piece. As we move students into a position where they will be writing their own pieces, we wanted to provide another activity to clarify the importance and influence of voice. In this activity, they will see the transcript of a poem and will fill in how they think the voice will sound. This will require them to look at the entirety of the slam poem in order to decide what it worth emphasizing and then how to properly emphasize it. As this will be a major stepping stone in looking at slam poetry, the students will work in groups. After the completion of the activity, we will cometogether as a class to clarify different elements of voice. One purpose of this is to make sure thatstudents understand how authors use voice in their writing. The second is to allow students to begin thinking about how they can implement their own voice in their writing later on.

Essential Questions:1. How does tone/voice affect poetry?2. How can readers “hear” voice in written work?

Objectives:1. Students will understand how voice can influence poetry.2. Students will be able to identify voice in reading.3. Students will see how a change in voice can drastically affect the meaning of a poem.

Procedure:

[30 minutes] Activity: Friday, we looked at Taylor Mali’s “Totally, Like, Whatever” and analyzed elements of voice and tone through the video and recorded different elements that Mali used to emphasize different parts of his poem. This activity will ask the opposite--students split into groups and be given the transcription of Katie Makkai’s “Pretty.” Students will then insert elements of voice they feel that Makkai would use in her presentation of the poem. Students will put voice to the words. After the students have broken down the sections of the poem (4sections, 4 groups) the students will present their section of the poem. Once students have presented their section, we will watch Makkai’s youtube video of “Pretty” and compare and contrast how she presented to the students’ interpretation. (discussion will carry into next section).

[15-20 minutes] Group Discussion on the Board: Referring back to Friday, what elements did we emphasize in Mali’s poem? (volume, speed, tone, staccato, overall voice) How did we see these elements incorporated in “Pretty?”

Day 2 (Tuesday): Rebellion and Form

We spent the first week introducing slam poetry by comparing it to our conventional beliefs and understandings about what “poetry” is. After providing a brief introduction, we

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moved into Louder than a Bomb and the idea of “unconventional conventions.” Slam poetry, then, can be be identified by its sense of rebellion to conventional poetry. Calling it “slam” confirms this. Whereas the first week looked at slam poetry as a whole, in the second week we break down different elements of slam poetry and what makes it “rebellious.” For the first day, we are looking specifically at form. Form is essential in poetry as it is a major area that differs from that of prose. How poetry is structured is one of the primary foundations that makes poetry a unique form of literature. We rationalize starting week 2 on the basis that talking about form and structure will give students the focus of looking at what a poem looks like and which formatic elements were chosen to produce meaning. We chose this before theme and content as form lays the groundwork for how the poem is organized and therefore the content. As indicated through Louder than a Bomb, another essential element of slam poetry is that of rebellion. Thisis applicable to form as well and the use of a rebellious form scaffolds the idea of slam poetry asan entity.

Essential Questions:

1. How is slam poetry an innately rebellious form of literature?2. What does it mean to be rebellious?3. In what ways can form be rebellious?

Objectives:

1. Students will be able to define and recognize what it means to be rebellious2. Students will be able to differentiate formatic elements of slam poetry from more

traditional poetry.

Procedures:[25 minutes] Compare “Pretty” with “The Road Less Traveled”

As a class, make make a list of formatic elements that differ--especially those of rhyme scheme, meter (refer back to the activity from Friday on establishing conversation for different elements, but focus on what elements are different and why a poet seeking expression would want to make those changes)

[5 minutes] (writing extended into homework) Which style do you prefer and why? Do you like the sense of structure or the freedom of free verse?

[20 minutes] In context grammar lesson: Complex Sentences Handout compound sentencesindependent and dependent clauses sentence combining

In poetry, especially free verse poetry, it is essential to be concise. Using “exactly the right word” is one of the elements that makes poetry different from prose. Poets, then, must be able tolink ideas together to form complete, concise sentences--therefore, the ability to blend ideas into each other becomes essential. To address this idea and to move from simple sentences tocomplex sentences, we will address the handout focusing on compound sentences, different types of clauses, and sentence combining. This in-context grammar lesson will take students to the

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next level of sentence composition.

Day 3 (Wednesday): Rebellion and Theme

Slam poetry as an act of rebellion does not merely extend to form. A major component of slam poetry is the theme of rebellion, a push for social change or to point out something wrong in the world that is often overlooked. While this takes place in more traditional poetry,the theme of rebellion is essential to the identity of the slam poem. For the second day of week 2, we will focus on how rebellion is implemented through theme. As this is April in the second semester of a creative writing class, the students already have a firm understanding of theconcept of theme in writing so we will move into the perception of theme as a rebellious entity.Whereas Day 2 focused on comparing how slam poetry deviates from traditionally recognized theme, Day 3 will focus on what slam poetry has to say. We will be looking at “Pretty” and “Totally Like Whatever” in order to further understand what the poets are rebelling against, what elements they use to voice their rebellion, and how students can apply these elements to their writing.

Essential Questions:1. How can a style of writing be deemed “rebellious?”

Objectives:1. Students will be able to identify theme in writing.2. Students will be able to apply the theme of rebellion to the writing.

Procedure:[20 minutes] some sort of activity focusing students on the theme of rebelliousness: beginning of class tie to rebellion in form?

[5 minutes] Listen to “Pretty” again

[10 minutes] Journal: What is the poet rebelling against? Is she effective? Why or why not?

[5 minutes] Listen to “Totally Like Whatever” again

[10 minutes] How are the “rebellious” messages of these poems similar/different?

Day 4 (Thursday): Rebellion Continued (Social/Political issues)

After two solid days of scaffolding the rebellious nature of slam poetry, Day 4 will give students the opportunity to begin thinking about what issues they feel strongly about. From the beginning of the unit, we have told the students that they will be expected to write and perform their own slam poetry. In order to scaffold this, we will focus first on an issue that the students feel passionately about. Like all poetry, slam poetry is about feeling. Students need to be able to identify what they feel strongly about in order to write strongly. Keeping with the theme

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of “rebellious writing,” we will take the day to discuss different social/political/personalinjustices that the students see in their world. This can be as concrete as an “unfair” school rule, afriend mistreating another friend, or as abstract as a call to end world hunger. The main priorityis to focus on brainstorming and to get students thinking about what themes influence and impactthem. We have seen in “Pretty” and “Totally Like Whatever” themes that rebel against the ideas of gender perceptions and an avoidance of a culture of ignorance. Therefore, this day is about talking about what themes and topics can be utilized in slam poetry.

Essential Questions:1. How large does an issue have to be in order to write about it? Is there a limit?

Objectives:1. Students will be able to identify relate what they have learned about slam poetry to

relevant issues in their lives.2. Students will be able to applying elements of rebellious form and theme in their

individual slam poetry.

Procedure:[10 minutes] Journal activity: What areas do you feel need to change in the world?

[15 minutes] As a class, make a list of items worth rebelling against--the teacher will need to scaffold different levels of issues from global to regional to personal, from abstract to concrete. The topics will be divided into “world,” “national,” “personal,” and “school.” more categories can be

[25 minutes] Each student will pick two items and spend time in class writing/practicing“rebellion” against one of the issues

Day 5 (Friday): Guest Speaker: A Slam Poet’s perspective

Having a slam poet would be terrific way to transition into primarily focusing on the study of elements of slam poetry to combining those elements into a solid piece of writing and presentation. Having a slam poet come into the class would provide the students with a multitude of insight. First, this will help show students that slam poetry is alive and active near them rather than a separate and alien entity. Second, the slam poet will be able to share some ofhis or her insights in writing slam poetry--what topics they typically like to write about, how theyimplement structural elements, how they produce work in competition, how they approach presenting their work, etc. The poet will be able to share insights about how slam poetry happens. Next the slam poet will be able to present a piece to the students live. This not only allows students to see the presentational element of slam poetry in action, but gives them a personal connection as well. Finally, the students would have an opportunity to ask questions in order to clarify different elements they may confused about or to learn more about what parts of slam poetry interest them. Bringing in an expert would not only be a fun way to spend a class period, but be educational and insightful as well.

Essential Question:

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1. How can slam poetry come from our everyday lives?

Objective:1. Students will be able to see how slam poetry happens live.

Week 3

Day 1 (Monday): Understanding Conceits and Descriptive Language (In-ContextGrammar Lesson)

Effective slam poets are only so powerful because of the language they meticulously choose and the literary devices they implement in order to enhance their message. As students begin to view themselves more as writers of slam and less as viewers of the performance, they will need to better understand the rhetorical devices poets use in order to evoke greater meaning. Slam is about how convincing the writer is in articulating his point, and poets do this in a number of ways. One of the most effective and easiest to master strategies in making a piece more powerful is to incorporate language that is descriptive and unique. By using adjectives that elicit responses from the audience, the slam performer is able to control emotion and guide hisaudience to the conclusion he wants. Adjectives that are successful can also enhance literary devices that may be at play. The particular piece we will be viewing uses an extended metaphor, or a conceit, and this poet’s language adds to the metaphor. By using an existing poem to demonstrate these strategies, students will be more capable of incorporating language that is descriptive in their own poems.

Essential Questions:1. How does descriptive language enhance a piece of writing? Can it also be distracting?2. Is illicit language lazy or can it serve a purpose in certain domains? How?3. How can a conceit make a message more powerful?

Objectives:1. Students will be able to define and identify a conceit from an example.2. Students will be able to identify descriptive language and adjectives and the role they

play in creative writing, specifically slam poetry.3. Students will discuss the place of illicit language in slam poetry and the choice to use

these words.

Procedure:[5 minutes] Students will be given a transcript of Shane Hawley’s 2010 National Poetry Slamperformance from the semifinal round of competition. They will be instructed to underline or highlight instances where his language seems particularly descriptive and they will have to identify what the metaphor is. Remind students that a metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is said to be something to which it is not ordinarily applied. Play the YouTube video performance while students read along and note the above instances.

[15 minutes] Write the word “Conceit” on the board. Ask students if anybody knows what it means. Write the definition next to it- an extended metaphor. Ask students what the conceit was

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in Shane Hawley’s poem. Pose the following questions to the class in order to spark discussion: What is the conceit?What does Shane accomplish by using this conceit?Does it make his message more powerful? Why or why not?What descriptive language was most striking to you? How does his language inform or enhance the conceit?Are the instances of illicit language necessary or could Shane have used an appropriate

word that would have been equally powerful?Is there a time and place in which illicit language is acceptable?

[10 minutes] Pass out In-Context Grammar/Conceit worksheet and direct students to complete the handout using the transcript of Shane Hawley’s poem. By completing this handout which asks students to identify certain rhetorical strategies Hawley implements, we are meeting ourshort term goal outlined by Nebraska State Standard “LA 12.2.2.d Analyze models and examples(own and others’) of various genres in order to create a similar piece.”

[20 minutes] To finish class have the students break into their workshop groups that have been used throughout the entire year. Have students choose one metaphor from one of their handouts. From the list of adjectives created based on the metaphor, the groups will have to compose a short poem using the words to shape the metaphor into a conceit. The poems should be brief and manageable in the short time given. Remind students that the poem they create does not have tobe perfect or astonishing and that they will have time the following day to complete it. Also warnthem that it will be presented to the class.

Week 3- In-Context Grammar LessonUnderstanding Conceits and Descriptive Language (Adjectives)

Extended metaphors, or conceits, are one of the most commonly used rhetorical strategies in poetry. In slam poetry, in particular, the use of a conceit can add considerably to the power of the poem and the response it evokes from the audience. Metaphors and symbolic structures in poetry are enhanced by the poet’s choice of words and the descriptive language he or she uses. These adjectives, when chosen correctly, can make an ordinary poem more powerful and can add imagery to the metaphors or the conceit created. When students have a command of adjectives and know how to incorporate descriptive language, the figurative language in their poetry will be more powerful and imaginative. Likewise, when students are able to identify when other poets use these strategies and how using them enhances the work, students will be better able to model and incorporate these into their own writing. As Constance Weaver writes in The Grammar Plan Book, “Precise nouns and lively verbs can, indeed, greatly strengthen a piece of writing. What makes the greatest difference, though […] is using modifiers to add detail, voice/style, and sentence variety/fluency” (34). Adjectives are modifiers that can do all this and are especially potent in slam poetry.

Essential Questions:1. Can teaching students how to identify descriptive language and metaphor in a mentor text

enable them to practice the same strategies in their own writing?2. Can completing a grammar worksheet, however related to what they are doing and

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regardless of thorough contextualization, apply to students’ real and authentic writing.

Objectives:1. Students will be able to identify the instances of adjectives and other descriptive language

within an example text while also noting how these strategies enhance the figurative language used.

2. Students will be able to apply what they have learned in the above objective to their own writing by incorporating adjectives that enhance the figurative language they mustinclude in their poem.

Day 2 (Tuesday): Collaborative writing

Writing in small groups allows the intimidation inherent in writing to be lessoned. It also scaffolds students towards individual writing by allowing them to practice the techniques necessary to write effectively and to gain confidence in their writing ability. Slam poetry is an especially intimidating genre of writing for it forces students to share intimately what they feel most passionately about. In a group setting, students can scaffold this form of disclosure while still maintaining a level of group comradery. By sharing the collaborative slam poems, students who perform their group’s piece will have the opportunity to rehearse what performing slamfeels like. This is an important scaffolding step towards performing even for those who opt out ofit at this stage. Those who are hesitant will gain confidence by seeing their peers step up and perform for their groups. The poems will not be memorized or perfect by any means which will provide those who are nervous to perform courage from the knowledge that they will have the time to revise and practice their individual pieces later on.

Essential Questions:1. Why is collaborative writing important?2. How can writing in a group prepare a student to write individually?3. How does observing others perform, empower more hesitant students to perform later?

Objectives:1. Students will be better able to compose slam poetry after practicing with a small group.2. Students will better understand what performing slam poetry looks and feels like after a

few students present their groups’ poems for the class, further enabling individuals to perform their own slam poems.

Procedure:[10 minutes] Complete work on group poems. Remind students that the poem does not need tobe long and that someone from the group will have to perform it, imitating vocal elements that they have seen throughout the unit.

[20 minutes] Have a member from each group, beginning with volunteers and then randomly selecting students, come to the front of the class to perform his or her group’s poem. Tell students that in real slam poetry performances the audience always claps, cheers, and shows appreciation following every performance; they should as well. Allow students to have their poems in front of them as they perform.

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[20 minutes] Remind students about the field trip to be taken Friday to UNL, during which they will have to have a draft of their individual slam poems. Remind them that several collegiate students will be performing their own pieces of writing, not necessarily slam, but that if any of them are interested, they are encouraged to share their own. Allow students the last twenty minutes of class time to begin brainstorming for their poems. They should have already begun developing a list of issues about which to write, and now is the time to pick one for their poem. Help those who are struggling by suggesting that they begin by developing a list of descriptive words and images they would like to evoke in their poem pertaining to the overall issue. Suggest that they outline their poem before beginning to write.

Homework: Draft a poem or outline of their poem, keeping in mind the guidelines from the assignment sheet.

Day 3 (Wednesday): Individual Writing

Writing is a complex and intimidating process. It cannot be achieved overnight and often involves many mistakes, false-starts, and frustrations. Students are not immune to these difficulties, and in fact are often plagued by them more so than writers beyond the school setting. For one thing, students are captive participants in writing and often regard it with disdain. Slam poetry writing, although an enjoyable art form to view is perhaps more intimidating than most forms of writing. It demands a level of disclosure beyond any other genre and asks its writers to bare their soul on paper while forming an argument about a certain issue. For these reasons, it is imperative that proper consideration be paid for the plight of the student writer. By devotingclass time to composing their slam poems, the students will feel comforted by the knowledge that writing is a difficult endeavor to everyone and not only them. It will also provide students with the opportunity to ask for help or seek reassurance from the teacher during the writing processand not after. They can use this time to further brainstorm with their peers or to even rehearse theperformance of a certain part of their poem. In-class writing is an essential step in composing and will help mitigate at least some of the intimidation associated with writing.

Essential Questions:1. How does using class time for individual writing promote student confidence in their

writing and alleviate some of the intimidation?2. How can teachers use in-class writing time to further engage students with their writing

and be intrinsically motivated to write?

Objectives:1. Students will understand that writing is a complex and lengthy process that necessitates

substantial time and revision.2. Students will be more motivated to write as they see their peers tackling the same

difficulties as them.

Procedure:[5 minutes] Remind students again of upcoming field trip to UNL and answer any questions posed by the class pertaining to the individual slam poems.

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[30 minutes] Allow students nearly the entire class time to work on their slam poems. Field any questions they have and offer guidance when necessary. Circulate throughout the room to ensure that students remain on task and are progressing with their poems. Students should be close to completing their first drafts by the end of the class period.

[15 minutes] Remind students that the following day they will be working with their peer workshop groups to revise and assist each other’s drafts. Scaffold effective slam poetry revision with Peer Revision handout.

Homework: Finish a completed draft of the poem and bring in 4 copies for peer workshopping.

Day 4 (Thursday): Peer Workshop Day

To continue emphasizing the importance of the writing process, a day will be devoted to peer-workshopping. Perhaps the most important aspect of writing is revising and too often students do not fully understand why or how to properly revise their writing. By devoting a day to teaching the strategies of a peer workshop and allowing class time for students to take part in one, students will therefore see the important place revision has in writing. Working alongside peers is also an incredible enabling and empowering exercise. Students who may feel that they are struggling to compose their own slam will see that their peers are also experiencing these difficulties and because every student will excel in a slightly different area of writing, they will be able to collaboratively assist one another without feeling as if they made a mistake which can be caused in teacher-student workshopping.

Essential Questions:1. How can peer revising not only improve a student’s writing but also lesson the

intimidation associated with revision and the overall writing process?2. How can teachers insure that students working in a workshop group will remain on task

and be engaged to the level necessary for them to benefit the most from the activity.

Objectives:1. Students will practice what they have learned about the proper techniques of peer

workshopping in order to improve their writing and assist others in their group.2. Students will be able to identify the figures of speech and themes in a peer’s poem as

well as what works and what might need improving.

Procedure:[5 minutes] Remind students that they will be spending class revising their poems with their workshop groups and that they must complete the Peer Revision Worksheet for each of the 3 member of their groups, for whom they will be providing feedback. Have students break up into their permanent workshop groups and begin working.

[45 minutes] Students will take turns reading their poems to their groups while their group members read along and complete the Peer Revision Worksheet. They will each provide their peer who has just read with three stars and a wish before moving on to the next reader. Before

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class is over, remind students once again that they are to meet in class the following day before they head to the UNL campus for their collegiate field trip. Several volunteers will be given the opportunity to read/perform their poems at the end of the trip in an open mic. activity.

Homework: Revise poem with peer workshop suggestions in mind and prepare for field trip.

Day 5 (Friday): UNL Field Trip

As juniors and seniors prepare for the end of their respective years, future plans are more than a consideration and most will already have their prospects chosen. By allowing students the opportunity to enter a collegiate setting still as high school students, they can begin to identify with the new surroundings and for those who have not yet decided if higher education is for them, seeing themselves on a college campus may be the deciding factor. Many students do not get the opportunity to see a college campus so soon to becoming college students, and many more are not given the experience of meeting with and working alongside college students. With this field trip, the student will get such an experience as they meet with small groups led by acollegiate writer and share their writing. This is not so much of an additional workshop, although revision suggestions are always helpful, as it is an opportunity for a community of writers tomeet and share. Several collegiate students will have been chosen to perform during an openmic. and students from the high school class will be provided the chance to perform if they wish.By reading others’ pieces and by seeing peers perform and by performing themselves in a low anxiety setting in which nothing is graded, students will again be scaffolded in the process of writing and performing.

Essential Questions:1. Can seeing a college campus and working with college students help high school students

view themselves better as potential collegiates?2. How can sharing writing with college students further scaffold effective writing?

Objectives:1. Students will improve as writers as they work with a small group of writers, sharing their

work and identifying each other’s strengths.2. Students will gain confidence in the act of performing as they observe students not unlike

themselves performing.

Procedure (Given extra time allotted beyond normal time constraints): After arriving to UNL:

[5 minutes] Introductions and guidelines for effective group work (Share poems and identify strengths of each poet). Break into small groups with collegiate students.

[40 minutes] Group sharing and discussing. Each student will read his or her piece and the group will commend the strengths of the author.

[45 minutes] Reconvene as a large group and begin open mic. session. College students who have been previously selected will share their pieces, no piece should take more than 5 minutes

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to present. After these students have performed, volunteers from both classes will be allowed to take the floor to present their pieces. Once everybody who wishes to read their piece has finished or the allotted time is up, students will board the bus and return to school.

Week 4

Day 1 (Monday): Active Voice

Week 4 represents a shift from students thinking of themselves solely as writers, to thinking of themselves as performers with a purpose. The catalyst for this shift is the visit to a college classroom, which gives students an opportunity to consider their identities post-high school. Day 1 of Week 4 will take advantage of this modelling, emphasizing the need for conviction and active voice in speech. The texts used will come from previously studied poems, so that students will consider active voice in terms of the poems’ effect (inductive) rather than viewing active voice as something separate from overall meaning.

Essential Questions:1. How can different phrasings influence the power and effect of a text?2. How does active voice bring clarity to writing?

Objectives:1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the difference between active and passive

voice in their own writing.

Procedure:[10 minutes] Discussion: What did you take away from the college visit? What surprised you?

[15 minutes] Shift into a discussion of confidence in writing, explaining that effective slam poets don’t just convey confidence through their delivery, but through their writing as well. Write “Active Voice” and “Passive Voice” on the board.

Put four quotes on the board (from “Pretty” and “Like Totally Whatever”):

“I will wipe that question from your mouth like cheap lipstick”“That question will be wiped from your mouth like cheap lipstick”

“So I implore you, I entreat you and I challenge you / to speak with conviction.” “So you are implored, entreated, and challenged / to speak with conviction”

Ask: Which are more powerful? Why?

Underline the subjects of each sentence and explain how when a sentence is passive, there are parts of the sentence that are unclear. (What is wiping the lipstick off? Who is imploring?) and the reader doesn’t get the whole picture, and doesn’t feel the full punch.

[20 minutes] Students will revise their own poems for instances of active and passive voice.

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Day 2 (Tuesday): Avoiding Cliches With Juxtaposition

The emphasis of our unit is on expression and social change, which makes it easy for creativity to be left wanting. Slam poetry is not merely a persuasive speech; it is poetry. Juxtaposition takes the study of metaphor to a creative extreme, forcing students to make novel connections and make new relations. This lesson creates disequilibrium by having students brainstorm a list of nouns before considering them in terms of comparisons. This will help students realize that they can look anywhere for creative inspiration, not merely from a formula or regimented process. This lesson speaks to our short-term goal “LA 12.2.2.b Write considering typical characteristics of the selected genre,” writing with consideration of the poeticconventions of metaphor and juxtaposition.

Essential Questions:1. How do creative connections strengthen a writer’s argument?2. How can writers prevent writing from becoming cliche?

Objectives:1. Students will be able to explain and use juxtaposition in their own writing.

Procedure:[10 minutes] Bellwork (with brief discussion afterward): Rewrite this sentence into active voice:“The bellwork was finished.”

[10 minutes] Have students call out nouns and make a list on the board. After a dozen or so are on the board, pick two unrelated nouns and ask students to connect them in some way. Repeat 2 or 3 times.

[10 minutes] Pass out and explain “Juxtaposition” worksheet (See Materials). Explain that metaphor is how we make connections and comparisons between things. The way those two things contrast is called juxtaposition. Some of the most creative comparisons come from juxtaposing two words that at first look, don’t seem connected: sunsets and ice cream, homework and metal music, a car and a cat.

[20 minutes] Students will work individually and with partners on the “juxtaposition” worksheet.

Day 3 (Wednesday): Modelling Effective Performance

This final work day before presentations serves to model discrete elements of effective performance that may still stand in the way of students’ confidence and self-assurance. Through specific attention to a few key considerations, such as tone and gesturing, students come to realize that the identity of “performer” is within their reach. By allowing students to perform their poems with a partner then small groups, students are able to gradually overcome their stage fright and see themselves as members of a supportive team.

Essential Questions:

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1. How do verbal cues and body language contribute to meaning when performing a text?

Objectives:1. Students will analyze a spoken text for verbal and gestural cues.2. Students will work collaboratively within a small group to practice performance skills.

Procedures:[15 minutes] Students will be handed a transcript of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”speech and shown 2 minutes of the speech on YouTube. Students will be asked to draw a line break where there are pauses and arrows for increase/decrease in volume. Discuss.

[10 minutes] Teacher will model effective use of verbal cues (pauses and control pact, volume, and tone) and body language (gestures, eye contact, expression) using teacher’s own poem.

[20 minutes] Students will practice performing their poems with a partner, and afterward in groups of 4.

[5 minutes] Explanation of slam poetry performance rules and etiquette; pass around sign-up sheet of Day 4/Day 5 schedule.

Days 4 & 5 (Thursday and Friday): Presentation

The unit culminates in two days of presentation. This is where the unit’s skills and understandings are synthesized in a community setting, involving both active listening and performing. To ensure that students experience the fun of slam poetry while still critically engaging, students will only be required to respond to their fellow workshop group members. This will focus on the positive (“3 stars) while still ensuring that students are also critically attending to the performance.

[50 minutes] Students will present their slam poems and provide “3 stars and a wish” feedback for each member of their workshop group, drawing from the rubric criteria. Since students are providing feedback to classmates they have worked with throughout the writing process, they will be encouraged to comment on the development and growth of the poem.

Essential Questions:1. How is meaning constructed through the social experience of presenting poetry?

Objectives:1. Students will actively participate as performers, audience members, and responders to

slam poetry.

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Materials

I. Final Assessment Assignment Sheet

Name:

Slam Poetry: This is My Voice

As Shane Koyczan says, “This is my voice. There are many like it, but this one is mine.” We all have our own voice, our own tool for self-expression and a call for change and social justice.The last few weeks, we have been reading/discussing/living slam poetry--what makes it “slam,”what it stands for, how it is structured. After looking at a multitude of poems’ themes and styles,it is time to create your own, to exercise YOUR voice, which no one else has.

Just as a voice is not meant to be silent, neither are you and neither is your poem. We have also watched slam poetry and analyzed how the presentation of slam poems can affect its meaning. Slam poetry competitions exist because slam poets are able to display insane amounts of emotion themselves and draw emotion from their audience. The performance aspect of slam poetry can greatly increase how effective the poem is as we have seen from slam poems across the web. Strong presentation adds an entire element to the piece.

So here’s the assignment: you will write your own slam poem that represents you and some element of your identity--your voice. Just as we have seen in (list of slam poems), another huge element of slam poetry is a call for the correction of some social change. (This can be as individual as a little kid who is bullied at school or as large as a call to end world hunger.) You will clearly establish a “wrong” that you wish to rectify and provide a sense of solution/direction for change in your slam poem. Identity and a call for social change will be the primary topics for your slam poem.

Within each poem, you will also exhibit elements of slam poetry that we have discussed in class. Poems will need to establish a strong use of tone, volume, rhythm, pacing, gesture to convey purpose. You will also need to include metaphor, vivid imagery and repetitionand at least two instances of: alliteration, rhythm, onomatopoeia, irony, juxtaposition. Do not let these literary devices limit the poem--after all, slam poetry is still about expression.

Can you imagine any of the slam poems we’ve seen and read without the performances that bring them to life before an audience’s eyes? Neither can we. As such, your involvement with slam poetry won’t end with what you’ve written on the page—you will be utilizing what we’ve learned about the performative power of slam poetry to bring your own slam pieces to life in a classwide poetry slam! After viewing Louder than a Bomb, you should have an idea of what a typical poetry slam looks like. We are going to hold a similar event in the final days of the unit so you can show off the hard work you’ve been putting into your poems over the last couple of weeks—with a few changes to the rules:

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Slam Rules:1. The poetry slam will take place over two days, with the class split into two groups of

performers for the purpose of having an equal number for each bout.2. Each student participating in the slam will perform one piece and one piece alone, be itindividual or collaborative.3. Performances will be judged by a panel of guest judges culled from the list of guests we’veentertained this semester.4. The judges shall give each performance a score between 0.0 and 10.0, with the highest andlowest scores being dropped.

Content, form, and structure guidelines—borrowed directly from the “Louder than a bomb— Omaha” website:1. All poems must be the original work of the poet(s) performing them. Plagiarized poems will be disqualified (i.e. will receive a score of 0.0). Note: direct quotations, allusions, or clearinspiration typically do not count as plagiarism.2. Content matter should not exceed a PG-13 rating, i.e. avoid excessive violence, sexuallyexplicit content or language, profanity, discriminatory language, or language which is degrading to any group of people. Poems may still deal with the ideas or notions of violence, sex, profanity, discrimination, or degradation (and so on), but should not perpetuate such things.3. Poems may last up to 3 minutes and 10 seconds before time-penalties are assessed. Timepenalties shall be 0.5 points for every 10 seconds over the time allotment (rounded up). After 4 minutes and 10 seconds, poets will be asked to leave the stage.4. Poets may not feature props, musical accompaniment, costumes. Poets may, however, stomp, clap, snap, sing, beatbox, etc., so long as all noises are created by the interaction betweenthe poet’s body, the stage, and/or the microphone.5. Beyond these rules, there are no restrictions placed on form, content, or structure of thepoems or the performances thereof.

Throughout the unit we’ve been primarily concerned with slam poetry’s unique ability to incite the type of emotional response conducive to change on a social as well as individual level. While you all are going to be concerned with evoking those emotional responses from your chosen audience, you must also consider your roles as effective audience members. Over the course of the unit we’re going to be doing a lot of peer work and revision in the form of small and large group workshop and feedback circles. You will all be held to high standards of etiquette in responding to your peers in these capacities--which includes your active participation as a receptive audience member during the final poetry slam. Also, as per the rubric, you will all need to complete a practice requirement where you perform for feedback as well as give feedback to yourself and your peers (see attached rubric).

You might think about these topics as you develop your poem...-An injustice you’ve seen-A time in which you were scared

-A time in which you were proud-A dream-When you are older...-A losing battle

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-A time when you’ve overcome a tough situation

You are encouraged to be creative with your poetic form, but it may help to consider this common poetry slam structure...

I. What? (Present a paradox)II. Character/Narration (Introduce speakers, characters, story)III. Refrain (like a chorus -- what is most important to repeat and emphasize?) IV. Sermon (what is your moral?)V. Closer

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Slam Poetry Performance Piece Rubric

4 3 2 1 0

Literary Technique 1 (metaphor, vivid imagery, repetition)

Student includes at least one instance of metaphor, vivid imagery, and repetition, using eachappropriately and highlyeffectively.

Student includes at least one instance of metaphor, vivid imagery, andrepetition, but there are slight inconsistencies in the appropriateness of the applications.

Student is missing one instance of metaphor, vivid imagery, or repetition, but it is clear if he/she understands how to use them correctly.

Student does not include the required number of poetic techniques and those that are included are used incorrectly.

Student did not include any poetic techniques.

Literary Technique 2 (alliteration, rhythm, onomatopoeia, irony, juxtaposition, parallelism)

Student includes at least one instance of his/her choice of two of the secondary poetic techniques and uses eachappropriately and highlyeffectively.

Student includes at least one instanceof his/her choice of two of the secondary poetic techniques, but there are slight inconsistencies in the appropriateness of the applications.

Student is missing one of the two instances of his/her choice of the secondary poetictechniques, but it is clear he/she understands how to use them correctly.

Student does not include the required number of secondary poetic techniques and those that are included are used incorrectly.

Student did not include any secondary poetic techniques.

Conventions Student displaysa consistent set of conventions. Any grammatical anomalies are purposeful and enhance the overall effect of the poem.

For the most part, student displays a consistent set of conventions, but some grammatical anomalies are not clearly intended or beneficial to the overall effect of the poem.

Student’s displayed set of conventions is not consistent and some grammatical anomalies intrude upon the poem’s intended effect.

Student does not adhere to conventions of any sort and grammatical anomalies obstruct the meaning of the poem.

Student displays no awareness of conventions to speak of.

Subject/theme The focus of the poem never wavers from the established subject in a distracting way and the student clearly takes a proactive stance on the issue.

The focus of the poem wavers ever so slightly from the established subject, but is not distracting. Student clearly takes a proactive stance on the issue.

The focus of the poem wavers from the established subject and is distracting. Student’s stance on the issue is unclear.

The poemdoes not focus on a clear subject, butthe student shows enthusiasm for a stance of some sort.

There is not clear subject to speak of and no stance exists for the student to take.

Page requirement: 4 3 2 1

Writing / 20

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4 3 2 1 0Verbal Cues Student displays

excellent understanding of effective verbal cues, utilizing pauses for effect and controlling the tone, pace, and volume of his/her voice.

Student displays a superior understanding of effective verbal cues, utilizing most of the established cues.

Student displays an adequate understanding of effective verbal cues, utilizing some of the established cues.

Student displays a sup-par understanding of effective verbal cues, utilizing very few of the established cues.

Student does not utilize verbal cues at all.

Body Language Student displays excellent understanding of effective body language,utilizing gestures, eye contact and facial expressions to the fullest.

Student displays a superior understanding of effective body language, utilizing most of the established body language.

Students displays an adequate understanding of effective body language, utilizing some of the established body language

Student displays a sub-par understanding of effective body language, utilizing very little of the established body language.

Student does not utilizebody language at all.

Practice andPlanning

Student has met the practice requirement and the piece shows a significant of planning went into the performance.

Student has met the practice requirement and the piece shows a fair amount of planning when into the performance.

Student has met the practice requirement, but little planning is evident in the performance of the piece.

Student has made an effort to meet the practicerequirement, but it is not clear he/she planned appropriately for the performance.

Student has made no effort to meet the practice requirement and the performance displays no evidence of prior planning.

Performance length

Student meets performance length requirement. One point will be deducted for every 30 seconds performed below or above the initial grace period of 10 seconds.

Overall Effect: 4 3 2 1

Presentation / 20

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II. Week 1 Punctuating Poetry worksheet

Punctuating Poetry

The poet structures all poetry carefully. Good poetry may not always require rhyme, but it will always require a reason—be it the subject of the poem or the flow of the poem as dictated by the structure. Today, we’re focusing on the structure—specifically, how the structure of a poem dictates how it is read. The reading—or performance—of a poem is something that slam poets pay special attention to. You can’t read a poem in any old way. It has to be purposeful. One of the easiest ways to make sure you are reading a poem according to the purpose for which it was written is to pay attention to how the poem is punctuated. Now, poetry is often not punctuated according to traditional conventions, but to how the poem is intended to be read. For that reason, we will be looking at how Taylor Mali reads his poem, “Totally, like whatever, you know?” and punctuating it according to how it is read.

This lesson speaks to the short-term goal of Nebraska state standard LA 12.2.2.d:Analyze models and examples (own and others’) of various genres in order to create a similar piece.

Instructions:1. In your groups, number off 1 through 4. If you have more than four members, read #6—if not, disregard #6.

2. Ones will watch Taylor Mali’s performance of “Totally, like whatever, you know?” for instances in which Mali pauses briefly. On the lyrics sheet on the next page, you will place commas (“,”) at the corresponding spots.

3. Twos will watch the performance for instances in which Mali strikes an interrogative tone—that is, the tone of his voice sounds like he is asking a question. On the lyrics sheet on the next page, you will place question marks (“?”) at the corresponding spots.

4. Threes will watch the performance for instances in which Mali noticeably increases the volume of his speech. On the lyrics sheet on the next page, you will place exclamation points (“!”) at the corresponding spots.

5. Fours will watch the performance for instances in which Mali pauses dramatically to change lines of thought. On the lyrics sheet on the next page, you will place periods (“.”) at the corresponding spots.

6. Students numbered greater than four will watch Mali’s performance and make notes in the margins of instances when Mali uses striking body language (pointing at the audience, moving across the stage, etc).

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Taylor Mali- Totally Like Whatever

In case you hadn’t realisedit has somehow become uncoolto sound like you know what you’re talking aboutOr believe strongly in what you’re like sayingInvisible question marks and parenthetical you know’s and you know what I’m sayingshave been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentencesEven when those sentences aren’t like questionsDeclarative sentences so calledbecause they used to like DECLARE things to be true okas opposed to other things that are like totally you know not they’ve been infected by a this tragically cooland totally hip interrogative toneAs if I’m saying don’t think I’m a nerd just because I’ve like noticed this okI have nothing personally invested in my own opinionsI’m just like inviting you to join me on the band wagon of my own uncertaintyWhat has happened to our convictionWhere are the limbs out on which we once walkedHave they been like chopped downwith the rest of the rain forest you knowOr do we have like nothing to sayHas society just become so filled with these conflicting feelings of nughThat we’ve just gotten to the point where we’re the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since you know a long time agoSo I implore you I entreat you and I challenge you to speak with convictionTo say what you believe in a manner that bespeaksthe determination with which you believe itBecause contrary to the wisdom of the bumper stickerit is not enough these days to simply question authorityYou’ve got to speak with it too

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III. Week 2 Complex sentences worksheet

Name:

Complex Sentences: Ideas from the Purdue OWL:

When you want to use commas and semicolons in sentences and when you are concerned about whether a sentence is or is not a fragment, a good way to start is to be able to recognize dependent and independent clauses. The definitions offered here will help you with this.

Independent Clause:An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought. An independent clause is a sentence.Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz.

Dependent Clause:A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb but does not express acomplete thought. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence. Often a dependent clause is marked by a dependent marker word: “When Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz . ..” (What happened when he studied? The thought is incomplete.)

Dependent Marker Word:A dependent marker word is a word added to the beginning of an independent clause that makes it into a dependent clause: “When Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz, it was very noisy.”Some common dependent markers are: after, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, eventhough, if, in order to, since, though, unless, until, whatever, when, whenever,whether, andwhile.

Connecting dependent and independent clausesThere are two types of words that can be used as connectors at the beginning of an independent clause: coordinating conjunctions and independent marker words.

1. Coordinating ConjunctionThe seven coordinating conjunctions used as connecting words at the beginning of anindependent clause are and, but, for, or, nor, so, and yet. When the second independent clause in a sentence begins with a coordinating conjunction, a comma is needed before the coordinating conjunction:Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz, but it was hard to concentrate because ofthe noise.

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2. Independent Marker WordAn independent marker word is a connecting word used at the beginning of an independentclause. These words can always begin a sentence that can stand alone. When the second independent clause in a sentence has an independent marker word, a semicolon is needed before the independent marker word:

Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz; however, it was hard to concentrate because of the noise.

(source: Purdue OWL)

Assignment:

Sentence Combining: From the Purdue OWL, we have seen some different elements of how to move from writing simple sentences to more complex sentences. To practice this, we will take the first draft of our slam poems and focus on combining those sentences therefore linking ideas. Through combining these sentences, you will use coordinating conjunctions, independent and dependent clauses. While these elements may not stay in the final draft, combining sentences will allow you to look at your writing from a different lens as you move into more complex writing and diction.

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IV. Week 3 Peer Revision Handouts

PEER REVISION WORKSHEET Slam Poetry

Name:

Author of Poem: Title of Poem:

What is the theme of the poem?

What is the issue presented and how does the poet resolve the issue?

List at least 1 instance of metaphor, vivid imagery, and repetition:

• Metaphor-

• Imagery-

• Repetition-

List at least 2 instances of any of the following: alliteration, rhythm, onomatopoeia, irony,

juxtaposition, or parallelism:

1.

2.

*On the back, record your ‘3 Stars and a Wish’

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3 Stars and a Wish

Record 3 Stars (moments in the poem that worked/ were especially strong/ you would like to commend the poet for using):

Record 1 Wish (one thing you wish the poet had done differently/ had included/ had not included in his or her poem):

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CONCEITS IN POETRYExtended Metaphor and Descriptive Language in

Shane Hawley’s “Wil E. Coyote” Slam Poem

What is the conceit in Hawley’s poem?

Identify at least 5 adjectives (descriptive words) that are especially powerful from the poem?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Create 3 metaphors from your imagination: Ex. “The cafeteria food is garbage.”

1.

2.

3.

Choose one of the above metaphors and develop a list of 3 adjectives that could enhance it:

Metaphor:

Adjectives:

1.

2.

3.

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V. Week 4 Juxtaposition Worksheet

Name:

Avoiding Cliches With Juxtaposition

Slam poetry should be surprising and forceful. Slam poets catch their listeners off- guard and force them to stop and think. This is a major part of music as well -- music follows a pattern, but of course not all songs sounds the same. Instead, good music plays with your expectations -- music is most exciting and enjoyable when it does something new and creative.

Poets achieve this effect partly through juxtaposition: making original, creativeassociations. Juxtaposing words means putting two or more ideas next to each other that aren’t directly related, but share some connection. How is a lemur like a baseball? How is a baby like a cell phone? Juxtapositions causes listeners (or readers) to think about things in a different way. Remember that metaphors are when we symbolize something with something else; think of juxtaposition as a type of metaphor that focuses on the contrast, or difference, between things.

In the space below, come up with a list of 10 nouns and right them in the column onthe left. Be creative! When you finish, ask a partner for 5 of their best nouns, and write them in the column on the right.

Your Nouns Partner’s Nouns

1. 1.2. 2.3. 3.4. 4.5. 5.6.7.8.9.10.

Using your two lists, come up with 3 “mini-stories” (1-3 sentences) that relate two nouns in some way. The words you use shouldn’t be obviously related, so you should creatively come up with a connection.1.

2.

3.

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VI. This is My Voice (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHczVzGfyqQ) By Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long

This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.and it’s a fine line when you’re trying to define the finer points of politics politics being a latin word“poli” meaning many“tics” meaning blood sucking butt lumpsyou see too many live in countries where it’s bullets instead of ballotswhere gavels fall like mallets when held in the hands of those whose judgmentscan be bought as easily as children can be taught to covetand the only ones willing to speak up are forced to live so far beneath the radarthat the underground is considered above itthis is for the Ho Ci Min’s and the Michael Collins’.for the Marquis de Sades and the muted gods.This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.

Chorus:

we’re not always right, but we’ve got the right to be wrong. we’re not always free, so this is just a short story long.

this is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine. and this time it’s for the sons and daughterswho watch their mothers and fathers drown in shallow waters whilepanning for the “American dream” in the polluted creek called the mainstream.This is for the homeless people sleeping on steam vents, making makeshift tents out of cardboard and old trash, trying to catch 40 winks in between the crash of car wrecksrisking their necks by surviving another day so that they can starveso that famine can carve their body into a corpse before their heart stops beating so that men in a boardroom meetingcan make it harder for them to get welfare, health care,it’s no wonder some of them pawn off their own wheelchairand every time I walk ‘em by, I can’t help but feel at fault, that maybe I didn’t search myself hard enoughfor the control alt “s” so that I could save the world. Or at least this little girl curled up into a ballI’ve spent most of my life throwing compassion back like a fish that’s too small. Gotta cash in my reality checks. drop her some spare fantasiescause I’ve got three separate degrees from different universities, but the most valuable thing I ever learnedwas to believe people when they say “Please.”

This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.

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Chorus:

We’re not always right, but we’ve got the right to be wrong. We’re not always free, so this is just a short story long

You ever been real, been reamed out, picked on, put down, ever been ever been rowdy at the sound when your own heart breaks, not to take the time, to take the time. listen.ever been seen and not heard, you ever blurred the lines for those who tried to find some way todefine what you are, as if you were far from them, at least at the heart of them its more than a part of them.you ever been told you’re too young or too old, and there’s always that line when you’re willing to walk by, and you gotta receive and then beat the deadlines. so don’t try to define us cause thistime we’ re fine. so don’t try to define us cause this time we’re fine. so don’t try to define us cause this time we’ re fine. We’re pissed and we’re loud and now you know why.

Chorus:

We’re not always right, but we’ve got the right to be wrong. We’re not always free, so this is just a short story long

Don’t tell me there are no heroes. This is for them, the women and the men. For Helen Keller who against all odds found a voice.For the choice Veronica Guerin made.For Martin Luther King who stayed just long enough to share a dream with us.This is for that day on the bus for sister Rosa Parks.This for the Joan of Arcs who believe even in the face of sparks becoming flame.The political game that Louis Riel refused to play. This is for the day the Dalai Lama finally goes home.For Dr. Jeffrey Wigand who alone stared down big tobacco. For Nelson Mandela who continues to go the extra mile.This is for the trial that finally found a man guilty of shooting Medger Evers dead. This is for everything Malcolm X said,remembered by athletes who left the Olympics double-fisted.For Arthur Miller, blacklisted for calling a witch hunt what it was.For Galileo locked up because he said the earth was round.For the Two Live crew who found the sound that got them banned in the USA.And imagine if we could still hear John Lennon play.This is for the someone who stood up today and said, “No!”.For Edward R. Murrow who shut down McCarthy. For Salmon Rushdie, Mahatma Ghandi,You, me, this city, this country. We will always have a choice.When you stand up to be counted.Tell the world, “This is my voice, There are many like it, but this one is mine

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VII. Totally, like whatever, you know? – Taylor Mali

In case you hadn’t realised,it has somehow become uncoolto sound like you know what you’re talking about? Or believe strongly in what you’re, like, saying?Invisible question marks and parenthetical you know’s and you know what I’m sayings have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?Even when those sentences aren’t, like, questions? Declarative sentences – so-calledbecause they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true, okas opposed to other things that are, like, totally, you know, not -they’ve been infected by a this tragically cool and totally hip interrogative tone?As if I’m saying,don’t think I’m a nerd just because I’ve, like, noticed this; okI have nothing personally invested in my own opinions,I’m just, like, inviting you to join me on the band wagon of my own uncertaintyWhat has happened to our conviction?Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?Have they been, like, chopped downwith the rest of the rain forest? you know?Or do we have, like, nothing to say?Has society just become so filled with these conflicting feelings of ‘nugh’ . . .That we’ve just gotten to the point where we’re the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since . . .you know, a long time ago!So I implore you, I entreat you and I challenge youTo speak with conviction.To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaksthe determination with which you believe it.Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You’ve got to speak with it, too.

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VIII. Pretty by Katie Makkai

When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, “What will I be? Will I be pretty? Will I be pretty? Will I be pretty? What comes next? Oh right, will I be rich?” Which is almost pretty depending on where you shop. And the pretty question infects from conception, passing blood and breath into cells. The word hangs from our mothers' hearts in a shrill fluorescent floodlight of worry.

“Will I be wanted? Worthy? Pretty?” But puberty left me this funhouse mirror dryad: teeth set at science fiction angles, crooked nose, face donkey-long and pox-marked where the hormones went finger-painting. My poor mother.

“How could this happen? You'll have porcelain skin as soon as we can see a dermatologist. You sucked your thumb. That's why your teeth look like that! You were hit in the face with a Frisbee when you were 6. Otherwise your nose would have been just fine!

“Don't worry. We'll get it fixed!” She would say, grasping my face, twisting it this way and that, as if it were a cabbage she might buy.

But this is not about her. Not her fault. She, too, was raised to believe the greatest asset she could bestow upon her awkward little girl was a marketable facade. By 16, I was pickled with ointments, medications, peroxides. Teeth corralled into steel prongs. Laying in a hospital bed, face packed with gauze, cushioning the brand new nose the surgeon had carved.

Belly gorged on 2 pints of my blood I had swallowed under anesthesia, and every convulsive twist of my gut like my body screaming at me from the inside out, “What did you let them do to you!”

All the while this never-ending chorus droning on and on, like the IV needle dripping liquid beauty into my blood. “Will I be pretty? Will I be pretty? Like my mother, unwrapping the gift wrap to reveal the bouquet of daughter her $10,000 bought her? Pretty? Pretty.”

And now, I have not seen my own face for 10 years. I have not seen my own face in 10 years, but this is not about me.

This is about the self-mutilating circus we have painted ourselves clowns in. About women who will prowl 30 stores in 6 malls to find the right cocktail dress, but haven't a clue where to find fulfillment or how wear joy, wandering through life shackled to a shopping bag, beneath those 2 pretty syllables.

About men wallowing on bar stools, drearily practicing attraction and everyone who will drift home tonight, crest-fallen because not enough strangers found you suitably fuckable.

This, this is about my own some-day daughter. When you approach me, already stung-stayed with insecurity, begging, “Mom, will I be pretty? Will I be pretty?” I will wipe that questionfrom your mouth like cheap lipstick and answer, “No! The word pretty is unworthy of everything

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you will be, and no child of mine will be contained in five letters.

“You will be pretty intelligent, pretty creative, pretty amazing. But you, will never be merely'pretty'.”

XI. Untitled - Shane HawleyPerformed at the 2010 National Poetry Slam- Semifinal RoundSt. Paul, Minnesota

It will work this time, it has to.I spent the better part of 19 hours crafting this mural on bedrockAnd 3 full days before that laying pavementRedirecting the winding desert road so it end(?) abruptly at the foot of my masterpiece, A rock wall painted to look like a tunnel.An optical illusion; a way out. But there is no way out of here.My name is Wile. E. Coyote and I am so fucking hungry. Inexplicably stuck in this lifeless desert.My only companion a mindless blue bird whom I am forever doomed to chaseTo(?) all laws of the universe bend then break,This is my existence.Compulsively ordering one ridiculous contraption after anotherEven though I am on to the people at ACME I know you are fucking with me.I am hours of flight suits, or a working magnet, or a lit wick short of supperAnd I deserve it.I left my imprint all over this desert.I’ve been pancaked, incinerated, run over, diced, and buried.I’ve accepted my failure with only simple signs pulled from invisible back pocketsBegging for your empathy as if it will cushion what comes next.And whoever fancies himself my maker was cruel enough to imbue upon meThe knowledge of how things are supposed to be.Rockets fire upon ignition,Rocks roll when the pull is great enough against them,The trajectory of catapults is not arbitrary, Predators catch prey.Can you imagine how it feels, your best laid plans crumbling around you, Peering into the mouth of fate only to have it blow up in your face.It’s enough to make you wonder if it’s better to be a perfect physical specimenThan it is to be bright.If all the time you’ve spent lost in thought has been a waste. When all along it’s been easier to just run.I am a super genius and I can’t capture a flightless birdWho grins as I drool for his flesh.I keep at it as if the next bow will fire the arrow instead of me.As if the poison bird seed will somehow end up in his mouth instead of mine.

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It is the curse of an addict to chase the thing that destroys you. But until you’ve done it,Until you’ve launched yourself off a thousand foot cliffsFor that thing that you loveYou will never understand the gravity of my plight. This is it.The culmination of my maniaThis fake fucking tunnel is the best I can do.And when the dust settlesI will stand firmly on red sand,His broken blue neck clenched between my teeth. This time it will work, it has to.

Bridging texts

I. Poetry of Revolution: Poetry as a Vehicle for Social Change:http:// lamyaa-hashim.suite101.com/poetry-of-revolution-a84265 - ixzz1sRSyKSJ0For students that need extra support incorporating social change and civic awareness into their poetry, this article serves as a useful reference on writing for meaningful social purposes.

II. “Louder Than a Bomb:”This spellbinding documentary is an excellent display of what young people our students’ ageare capable of and will serve as an incredible motivational tool.

III. Writing in Rhythm book:Passages from Writing in Rhythm dealing with the art of “reading and feeding” could be used asmodels for students to see how to give constructive, respectful feedback.

IV. YouTube slam poem - Katie Makkai’s “Pretty:”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wJl37N9C0Slam poetry is made to be seen and this YouTube video provides students with yet another example of a powerful and meaningful slam poem by Katie Makkai. Her poem entitled, “Pretty,” is a striking condemnation of the societal pressures on girls to be pretty. This poem could be used as a great model text, as it evolves into a hypothetical message to the poet’s potential future daughter based on the lessons she has learned through life. Students could create their own “letter” poems in which they address somebody who already exists or who might in the future.

V. KVNO News “Omaha Goals Wild for Louder Than a Bomb:”http://www.kvnonews.com/2012/04/omaha-goes-wild-for-louder-than-a-bomb/This glowing review of Omaha’s 2012 “Louder Than a Bomb” would be useful to energizestudents to performance. The author speaks of being “blown away by the depth and profundity of what they had to say,” legitimizing the genre through a close-to-home and recent example.

VI. Collection of poems from slam poets:These poems will come from our guest speaker. Giving students these slam poems in advance

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will allow them to familiarize themselves with the work of the poet in order to get to know his or her style and personality.

VII. Copies of Slamma Lamma Ding Dong:This anthology of slam poems by Nebraska natives will allow students to see the validity of the genre within the context of their own home state. These poems also relate to Nebraska life as well as more universal themes, both of which our students can relate to.

VIII. Websites for creative writing/poetry prompts:It can be difficult for students to find inspiration for their writing. It may be useful to providethem with websites that provide writing prompts to spur the imagination. http://www.creative-writing-now.com/poem-starters.html

IX. Excerpts from episodes of HBOs Def Poetry Jam:It is often helpful for students to see models they respect or are interested in pursuing similar activities. This series showcases well known entertainers performing poetry in such a way that may be highly captivating for students.http://www.youtube.com/watch?=sGvZ9aXg5Xs

Potential Field Trips:

I. UNL English Class Partnership:In addition to giving students an opportunity to see how slam poetry is performed firsthand, thevisit to the UNL campus will also serve as a motivational tool to get them thinking about their future and the role writing poetry may or may not play in it.

II. Poetry Reading:Lincoln has a thriving writing community and there are regular poetry readings and open mike nights at various venues across the city (There are poetry readings every Tuesday night at the South Mill, for example). It will be useful to expose our students to as many instances of live poetry performance as possible to create a template around which they can model their own performances, as well as to give them a chance to acclimate to a performance environment.

III. Louder than a bomb—Omaha:The execution of our unit will likely coincide with Omaha’s “Louder than a bomb” poetryfestival, and taking students to see even one bout in which students like themselves are competing could be hugely motivational.

Guest Speakers:I. Area slam poets:As witnessed by the astounding success of the recent “Louder than a bomb” poetry festival inOmaha, the Lincoln/Omaha area plays host to a wide variety of talented slam poets. To bring exposure to their craft, one or more slam poets may be willing to join us for an educational demonstration.

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II. Susan Martens:As an educator interested in the art of slam poetry, professor Martens may have some valuableinsight to offer our students for engaging in the writing of slam poetry in an academic context.

III. Robert Brooke:During the workshopping portion of the unit, Robert would discuss his involvement with theNebraska Writing Project and provide students with revision skills and strategies.

IV. Speech coach:A school’s speech coach would be able to provide support and strategies in the performancestage of the unit, to develop students’ body language and verbal cue skills.

G. Accomodations

Special education students, ELL students, and/or students with an IEP may need accommodations throughout the course of the unit. The teacher will ensure that these students are provided with transcribed printouts of any spoken-word poem, and links to YouTube or the poems’ sources in order to be allowed additional processing time. During group activities,students with trouble communicating will be partnered with extroverted peers who will be able to provide social support. Students with an IEP may also be judged on a modified rubric for the summative assignment; for example, they may not need to include as many literary devices in their poems.

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H. Texts for Non-Student Audiences

I. Collaborative Parent Letter:

Dear Parents,

As we move further into our creative writing class, we continue to look more and more into different styles of writing, experience and self-expression. Throughout the year, your student has plunged into exploring creative writing and has been exposed to a wide variety of genres. As we move into April, National Poetry Month, we shift our focus away from writing primarilyprose into poetry, specifically slam poetry. If you are not familiar with slam poetry, the genre is usually composed at poetry slams where poets have a short window of time to compose and original piece and present that poem to the audience. Based on a “score” given by the judges based on the emotional response by the audience, the poet with the highest score is named the winner. This contest take place on the national level, in major cities such as Chicago and New York, and even as close as Lincoln and Omaha. Slam poetry is an exciting and lively that the students will enjoy viewing, writing, and reading.

We are teaching slam poetry because of its position as an emerging genre. In past schooling students have learned about the sonnets of William Shakespeare and other traditional poems. They have developed understandings of rhyme, meter, and how “poetry is supposed to look.” However, this is a creative writing class. Your student is enrolled in this class to learn to write creatively rather than only conventionally. Slam poetry addresses the same ideas as that of traditional poetry, only in a newer, more appealing, and fun form.

One of the most appealing elements of slam poetry is that they can be actively viewed on Youtube. Clips from competitions are very easy to find. However, one of our primary concerns in teaching this unit is the use of profanity in many of these presentations. To be clear, as a district we are not justifying the use of profanity in writing or presentation, and we are not actively exposing these elements to your children. At the same time, we recognize that your students do not live in a vacuum. While the amount of profane language will be extremely limited in our classroom, I wanted to bring the issue to your attention. Though some profanity exists in slam poetry, we do not feel that this is adequate reasoning to disregard the genre all together. Just as To Kill a Mockingbird handles elements of racism and profane language, the book is still taught because the bad does not override the benefits that the text provides. The same can be said of slam poetry. Through this unit, we will keep the same level of academic professionalism that you come to expect of us as educators and if you have more concerns, please feel free to contact us regarding this unit.

That being said, we appreciate your support and the effort your student has shown throughout the past year. We look forward to moving into slam poetry and continuing to write creatively.

Sincerely,

The English Department

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II. Letter to parents regarding field trip:

Dear Parent or Guardian,

I’m writing to inform you of a field trip planned for our Creative Writing 201 class on Friday, April 18th, 2013. As you know, our class has begun a month-long unit on Slam Poetry, using this rich and engaging genre to look at such topic as persuasive speaking, writing skills,and social responsibility. As part of the unit, our class has formed a partnership with a Writing & Communities college classroom at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. On Friday April 18th, our class will visit this UNL classroom, where English Education majors have prepared a “Slam Poetry” performance specifically for our benefit. This is an excellent opportunity for students to gain first-hand experience with quality writing and confident speaking skills as we build toward our class’s own “slam poetry” performance.

This field trip will take place during students’ 2nd and 3rd period classes, from 9:30-11:25am. Students will be back for their regular lunch periods and 5th period classes. Thestudents will be transported to and from the university by school bus. Please complete and return the attached permission slip (below) before Wednesday, April 16th, to ensure that your child is able to take part in this surely rewarding experience. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns at teacher@email.com. Thanks!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My child, , has permission to attend the field trip on Friday April18th, 2013.

Emergency Contact: Name:

Daytime Phone #:

Parent/Guardian Signature:

Best,Mr. Mount

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III. Invitation to area slam poet:

Dear (Guest Speaker):

We’re writing to inquire about your interest in a guest speaking opportunity in our creative writing 201 class at (Lincoln Public School) on Friday, April 11th, 2012. We are currently planning on launching into a slam poetry unit at the beginning of April and by the time of your visit, the students will be in the thick of brainstorming for and drafting their own slam poems, as well as planning for the performance of their pieces. As an active member of Lincoln’s writing community and an experienced slam poet, your perspective would be immensely illuminating to our students as they are navigating what we imagine will be their first ventureinto this incredible art form. Also, it is always motivating for students to see what they are learning at use in the “real” world. Seeing an established slam poet at work would be tremendously exciting for our students and would make them aware of Lincoln’s writing community in a more immediate way than anything we just tell them can!

Your role in our class would primarily be that of a guest facilitator, fielding students’ questions about what you write about, where you get inspiration, how you write and perform, your experiences as a slam poet, and other discussion strands pertaining to the art of slam poetry. It would be immensely impactful if you would also be willing to perform a poem or two for the class. By this time we will have watched several performances via YouTube and the documentary: Louder than a bomb, but our students will not yet have had the opportunity toview a performance firsthand. This would be an excellent opportunity for our students to become motivated about the prospect of performing slam poetry of their own and I hope you’ll consider my/our request. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at teacher@email.com. We would love to have you join us for an unforgettable experience!

Thank you,

Jordan Kuszak

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IV. Invitation to Speech Colleague:

Dear (H.S. Speech Coach from same school),

Currently my creative writing 201 course is preparing to begin a comprehensive unit on slam poetry. This unit will not only introduce slam to students, but will evolve towards a summative project in which students will be required to compose and then perform their own slam. We intend to create an atmosphere as close to a real slam poetry competition as possiblefor our students and therefore are preparing to host several guest judges to objectively score eachof our student performances on Thursday, April 24th, 2012 and again on Friday, April 25th,2012. Due to your expertise in speech performance, we would like to extend to you the invitationto come participate as a guest judge in our very own slam poetry competition!

Students will be practicing and developing oral presentation skills such as verbal cues,pauses, control of pace, volume, and tone. They will also develop a command of nonverbal skills such as body language, gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions. With your knowledge of all these elements of speech, your presence during our students’ presentations would certainly be an enabling and validating experience for them all, many of whom have never before been exposed to this genre of poetry or to performance as an art form.

Please feel free to email me or stop by if you have any questions or concerns and to let me know if you are interested in supporting our students by guest judging in this excitingproject!

Best, Katherine McKenzie teacher@email.com

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V. Letter to the administration:

To the administration:

Thank you for supporting our slam poetry unit throughout its development. While a concern with profanity in introducing slam poetry remains around parents, we believe that the genre of slam poetry should not be stifled because of some elements of “unfortunate” word choice, and as professionals we strive to give our students a product that does not compromise their beliefs or the beliefs of their parents. While we will continue to monitor this issue, it is also important to recognize that we live in a PG 13+ culture and though we strive to avoid profane language and theme, in some cases these elements are overridden by stronger themes and messages in slam poetry.

With this issue in mind, it is also important to recognize the draw that slam poetry has to students. Slam poetry is an active and live genre—rather than old sonnets or odes, though valuable, this style of poetry is modern, is theirs. Poetry slams are currently taking place all over the country, and as the documentary Louder than a Bomb, indicates, there is a thriving slam community in Lincoln and Omaha. In terms of theme, slam poetry addresses current concerns and a call for social change. Slam poetry pieces ask the audience to look at their world in a new way and to act against these problems we find in our society, a validating force for any type of literature. These poems are being presented by people of their age whom they can look up to. While slam poetry may not have the prestige of works by Wordsworth or Tennyson, students are able to relate to slam poetry.

The presentation of slam poetry is also an appealing factor to the development of its own unit. By its nature, slam poetry is meant to be entertaining and more importantly, draw an emotional response from the audience. This is how the competitions are scored. In an era where districts are seeking to present materials that students find interesting and engaging, slam poetry is able to fill this void. In addition, a wide variety of slam poetry can be examined. In addition to providing text on a page, students are able to see slam poets perform their pieces on websitessuch as Youtube. Therefore, students do not only learn elements of poetry and literature butdigital literacy. In an age where technology is appealing to both teachers and students, this option gives depth and appliablility to teacher and student.

Again, we thank you for your support and vision in the teaching of this unit and we believe that students will enjoy and gain from the application of slam poetry to our classrooms.

Sincerely,

The English DepartmentMr. Mount, Mr. Polacek, Mr. Kuszak, Ms. McKenzie

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Works Cited

Dewey, John. “My Pedagogic Creed.” The Curriculum Studies Reader. Ed. D. Flinders and F.Thornton. pg 17-23. Print.

Johnston, Peter H. Choice Words. Stenhouse Publishers: Portland, MN. 2004.Lipman, Matthew. Thinking in Education. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, NY. 2003.Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design. Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH. 2008.Somers-Willett, Susan B. A. “Slam Poetry and the Cultural Politics of Performing Identity.” The

Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association Vol. 38, No. 1, Special

Convention Issue: Performance (Spring, 2005), pp. 51-73. Print.Weaver, Constance. The Grammar Plan Book: A Guide To Smart Teaching. Portsmouth,

NH: Heinemann, 2007. Print.Wiggins, Grant. Understanding by Design. Pearson: Upper Saddle River, NJ. 2005.

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