Presenting
Students in grade seven continue to present claims and findings in argument, narrative, and
summary presentations. They now emphasize salient points in a focused, coherent manner (SL.7.4).
Specifically in grade seven, students plan and present an argument that mirrors many of the qualities
of writing arguments (SL.7.4a). In snapshot 6.7, middle school students create and present spoken
word poetry.
Snapshot 6.7. Poets in Society – Spoken Word Poetry and Youth Literacy
Integrated ELA and Performing Arts in Grade SevenAs part of an international movement to empower youth through the visual and performing
arts, the faculty at Bridges Middle School work with a local community organization to create a
thriving arts program that includes spoken word, dance performances, hip-hop and rap music
composing, and a mural project. The school frequently holds festivals where the students
perform, hold MC battles, and inspire one another. The program’s overarching goal is to
empower students and their teachers as authors of their own lives and agents of social change.
The program helps students see that their teachers view the language and literacy they each
bring to the classroom as valid in its own right and as a powerful resource for developing
academic English. The program also allows teachers to develop positive relationships with their
students and to see them as writers, poets, and performers. Over the years, as the program
has been refined, the approach has created trust among students, between teachers and
students, among teachers at the school, and between school staff and the community. The key
instructional principles of the program are the following:
“Learning how to authentically reach students is a precursor to successful teaching.
Knowing who students are and where they come from allows us to create meaningful and
thought-provoking curricula.
Reading, writing, and speaking are the foundations of academic achievement, critical
thinking, and social justice within and beyond the walls of school” (Watson, 2013, 393).
All of the teachers work together to nurture the youth literacy through the arts program,
and in the English classes, teachers work closely with poet-mentor educators, young local
spoken-word artists and rappers from the community, to support middle school students
writing and performing their own spoken word compositions. After completing a six-month
training program, the poet-mentors receive ongoing support from the community organization.
Teachers at the school believe that the program has helped them establish more positive and
trusting relationships with their students, partly because the students see that their teachers
care about what they have to say and think that students’ life experiences are valid topics
for school conversations and writing. The program has also helped teachers foster students’
transfer of what they learn composing spoken word and poetry into their more formal academic
writing of informational, narrative, and argumentative texts.
In their English classes, students analyze the lyrics of different types of poetry to
understand how the language used creates different effects on the reader. They also compare
classical or traditionally-studied poetry (e.g., Shakespeare, Emily Dickenson, or Langston
Hughes) to more contemporary forms (e.g., hip-hop lyrics or spoken word). The students
view videos of teenagers performing spoken word and discuss how the artists combine
language, gestures, facial expressions, intonation, rhythm, and other techniques to create
particular rhetorical effects. When the students begin to write their own spoken-word poetry,
the teachers post a quotation in the room that the class reads together to set the purpose for
learning about and writing spoken word poetry:Grade 7 Chapter 6 | 593