Snapshot 6.7. Poets in Society – Spoken Word Poetry and Youth Literacy
Integrated ELA and Performing Arts in Grade Seven (cont.)“Spoken word is a tool to liberate the mind, to illuminate the heart, and allow
us to recognize both our common humanity, as well as the challenges that divide
us.”
Vajra Watson, SAYS Founder and Director, UC Davis School of Education
The poet-mentors and teachers ask the students to channel their own experiences into
their writing. For example, the poet-mentor facilitates the following conversation with a class:
Poet-mentor: Can anybody tell me what it means to be accepted?Students: Respect, self-confidence, smart, honesty, be who you are, loyalty,
appearance, do what you’re told, friendship, good grades, helping, learning
(as students generate words, the poet-mentor writes them on the board).Poet-mentor: I want you to do something for me. I want you to write down your five top
word choices (students write). Now, circle your three favorite words from
that list (students circle the words). Now, I want you to cross out those
three words and incorporate the two words that are left into a free write
called “I am not who you think I am.”
The students’ poems are all different, expressing their own life experiences and
perspectives. One student shares part of his poem with the class:
Javier: I am not who you think I am. I do not like school. I do like to write.
The teachers and poet-mentors want each student to know that they can make a change,
just by using their own literacies. One of the poet-mentors shares his own spoken-word poem
with the students, which they then use as a model for writing. His poem, which serves as
a mentor text, encourages students to write and perform to communicate their hopes and
dreams, disappointments and regrets, fears and angers, and their ambitions. One of the
pieces the poet-mentor shares is the following:
I am no illusion of a fantasy
A smart living breathing human being, can it be?
I like to read and write cuz it helps me advantage me
You might have the umbrella, but I got a canopy
See – I made friends, lost some
Some say, “You raw, son”
Hear it so often, I feel like I’m (y’all son)
Wanna do what I want, but it’s kinda hard son
Cuz I gotta abide by this thing called the law, one
Two, I gotta prove to you what is real
Cuz fake stuff is apparently a big deal
Poet-Mentor Andre “Dre-T” Tillman
Teachers at the school feel that the community-based poet-mentors are critical to the
success of the program because they serve as translators and interpreters between the
students and teachers, not all of whom live in the ethnically and linguistically diverse urban
neighborhoods their students call home. The students, teachers, and poet-mentors, feel so594 | Chapter 6 Grade 7