I didn’t use to like the idea of Poetry Out Loud. It’s a showcase for students to memorize a poem and recite it–some students even act it out in a Spoken Word kind of way. I didn’t like that you had to choose a poem from the Poetryoutloud.org web site and that you had to be an actor to get consideration for winning some accolades, even if the actual poets would not have wanted their poems read that way. And, I have the ability to hear some of the poets reading these same poems–online sources have them doing it–so any listener, really, can hear how the poet wanted it read.
However, I got over my stubborn attitude because it is still finding a poem, memorizing it, and then speaking it in front of a class. All of those are pretty good standards, goals, and learning targets for an English teacher. I had students do Poetry Out Loud last year and didn’t offer much guidance, figuring the web site, and prior experience, would get it done. It didn’t. They picked poems that were at the top of the alphabet–didn’t matter as long as it was short and they didn’t have to look through many poems to find one.
This year I gave students more time, had them pick poems that I told them should be in a voice that they are capable of speaking (some of them choose old British poems and they just don’t have the oral language to pull it off). That said, some nailed it, some struggled here and there, and some had to be prompted over an over for their lines. They did way better than last year, but all my classes are not done yet, as kids didn’t go today and I don’t know if they’ll go tomorrow.
Of the ones who went today, no one tried to act it out in Poetry Out Loud fashion. No one. Many asked how many points the assignment was worth. Some went, did poorly, and asked if they could do it again (we’re doing it today and tomorrow). The bottom line is that not many seemed to care about it, in general, except as a school assignment/exercise. If I had asked them what their poem was about, I’m not sure what answer I would have received. This was just another hoop they had to jump through in school.
I don’t usually sell my students short here, but this should be fun? Yeah, fun! Own that crap and have a good old time. Read it like a pirate. Raise and lower that voice. Stand out. Have some style. Act it out a little.
Every now and then, the attitude of the class is on the students. As I told them earlier, “This is the one assignment that you can control without any influence from me. You are the ones doing everything here, from start to finish.”
In one of my classes, only seven students spoke today. That leaves 25 for tomorrow. Before the bell even rang to start class, students asked if they HAD to do this. Others just flat out told me they were not going to. Really? Some of the poems are seven or eight lines, less than 50 words long, and can be memorized in a few minutes.
That attitude makes it tough, and it’s tough on the kids who are afraid of speaking when they know they are being judged by others who refuse to do the assignment. I get that others have given kids a pass because we don’t want them to feel “UNCOMFORTABLE,” but each day adds more training wheels and scaffolding instead of stripping them away.