Poetry Slam!
Video
The Bridge program's theme this term has been the Power of Music and Film. As a tie-in to the theme, we were fortunate to have Jen Kunlire as a guest presenter.
Jen is a local spoken word artist who organizes and participates in poetry slams. A poetry slam is a competition where poets read or recite original work and a winner is declared. Jen started by giving some highly charged and expressive examples of her poetry.
By the end of the session, the learners recited the poems they had created in small groups.
Next week, I'll share about the stages leading up to the finished poems and what the learners thought about the process.
Have you written poems with your leanrers?
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Comments
Was it challenging?
Hi Don,
The learners look like they're having a blast. Did they find writing poetry in English challenging? I wonder if this is easier for LIFE learners than mainstream ESL learners...
Janice
Janice McCrimmon
jmccrimmon@bowvalleycollege.ca
Poetry Archive
Hi Don,
Thanks for sharing this unique learning opportunity - I look forward to reading your learners' reflections.
I've used poetry in my classroom numerous times with literacy learners and each experience is more powerful than the last. Many of the learners I've worked with have never published a piece of creative writing before and are incredibly proud of their accomplishments.
I've often used the resources at poetryarchive.org (both adult and childrens' sites) as it has recordings of poets reading their own works aloud and it really brings the poems to life. In particular, I have used James Berry's recording of Childhood Tracks as a jumping off point/structural template:
http://www.poetryarchive.org/childrensarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=117
It would be great to learn about other classroom friendly poetry resources.
Heidi.