Jeanne Zeller Professor Nardi, ENGL 481 4/3/12

Nick, Thank you for your thoughtful response to my essay. I enjoyed writing the paper, and Im glad that there were several points that seemed to have resonated with you. Though there were only a couple points in which you suggested I improve, I tried to edit the wording and explain my process a little bit better throughoutsince the points about which you had questions were important ones. The first, you asked me to clarify what I meant about how writing as a conversation allows for intrinsic motivation to grow organically. I meant to explain that, since writing exists in order to send a message, from sender to receiver (whether that be the same person or multiple different parties), if there is no stake for that message to be sent for the sender or receiver other than the receiver to grade its effectiveness, neither parties has invested enough stakes in the message for there to be an altruistic purpose for the writing purpose to begin with. So the writing assignment must be structured in a natural conversational way in order to tap into the intrinsic motivation of the writer, or student. Perhaps this just confused you more. But I tried to word it a little better in the paper in order to explain myself better. You also asked me a question near the end, bringing up the hypothetical situation where my students would feel to nervous to perform their poems to me as a teacher. I provided a few more scaffolding steps but as we both probably well know, sometimes getting a student to perform something is near possible. But building up their confidence from where it was when they started is always possible; and that in the least I hope to achieve. Thanks for your help, Nick, and I hope you like this version a little better! -JZ

Zeller 2

Slam Poetry: Identity and Conversation Slam poetry is a form of poetry that, like poetry, is meant to be read out loud but, unlike poetry, is more often found only in the performance form, rather than on a sheet of paper. That being said, there is a lot more that can be manipulated to communicate through a slam poem than simply words and punctuation, including (but not limited to) gestures, tone, facial expressions, tempo, dynamics, and accompanying music. There are many ways of simulating each of these elements within a written form of a poem, but slam poetry has the ability to get directly at these original and most human elements of expression, making the form both more accessible and powerful. But to get at the heart of the reasons why to teach slam poetry as a literacy activity, it is crucial to discuss my personal philosophy on why teaching writing literacy is important in schools today at allbecause once one understands why, how can make a lot more sense. As we discussed extensively during class, writing is a conversation, and that conversation can take place in a variety of ways. At times, it is simply a conversation with oneself, attempting to sort out thoughts, remember ideas, or discover subconscious realities. There is a speaker, informed by a world, and a responder, informed by the same world, but perhaps from a different perspective. Conversation can also take place between two people, or even a group of people, comprised of those same two roles. Therefore in any sort of writing activity, in order for intrinsic motivation to grow organically, the speaker must have a feeling that he or she is speaking from completely unique perspective, and that the responder genuinely wants to hear that perspective. Writing is a form of communication, and communication is about sending a message, so without the focus on that message, there is no purpose to it and very little intrinsic motivation.

Zeller 3

So, if this is true, then writing must be a conversation in order for sincere take-up of the activity by anyone. It is critical to note as well, however, that the speakers and responders in this particular lesson are obviously a certain type of person: they are adolescents. Adolescents. experiencing a significant transition in their lives from children to adults, have very specific struggles to contend with both inside and outside of school that a writing teacher has the potential to tap into; if a teacher focuses on processing these particular challenges through a writing assignment, chances are, engagement will be high. For instance, according to Erik Erikson, the crisis of development in the adolescent stage is the formation of an identity. If an adolescent is encouraged and given the opportunity to explore, identity development has the potential to become quite solid, and the individuals mission fulfilled. If the adolescent fails to explore or receives no encouragement to do so, he or she risks confusion, something that could be a cause of major unhappiness or insecurity (Mcleod, 2). Whether or not this need to explore ones identity is conscious in an individual, it is clear that any activity that can facilitate this mission for an adolescent is going to utilize intrinsic motivation and therefore encourage engagement. The question consequently becomes, what writing activity would be able to best access this intrinsic motivation? Immediately upon deciding on slam poetry as a literacy activity was probably rooted in a love I garnered for slam poetry years ago in high school; so I was not completely, immediately conscious of why it would make a particularly effective or engaging literacy activity, nor a literacy activity rooted in conversation, until I began designing the lesson. As I began writing the lesson, I first realized the multiple literacies it had the potential to harness, compared to simply writing: reading, writing, speaking, literary devices, rhythm, gesturing, and performance

Zeller 4

at the most basic level, with other types of literacy that could be tied in while creating a slam poem, like collaboration, creativity, or analysis (Guerrero). What I did not realize immediately was that the most powerful part of the lesson would have been when the student felt confident enough in the genre to use it to explore his or her identity and relationship with the world (i.e. through talking about a topic in which they are interested, speaking out against an injustice, using an experience to sort through the world, etc.). In other words, the most powerful part of the lesson I envisioned was when the student found fulfillment from utilizing the genre to explore their identity and participate in the giant conversationfeeling like they were a speaker with something to say, and there was a world out there that was ready to respond. Going through the lesson, however, and then reading responses, I realized that this was quite a hefty goal to achieve with only two, 30-minute class periods to accomplish it. Although the students seemed to enjoy the idea overall, all three of my students expressed a feeling of being rushed or not having enough time to really dive into the task, which I had definitely sensed as well as I taught the lesson (Guerrero, Wilmsen, Lin). Part of the reason was technological delays the first day, but even without those delays I am not sure there would have been any way to accomplish the final, ultimate process of identity exploration as I had intended in 60 minutes. According to comments, it seemed that students had gained a grasp at least with dealing with the genre itself: understanding its basic nuances and conventions (Guerrero). The most significant problem that accompanied insufficient time was the lack of time to scaffold properily during the activity. Because my ultimate goal required both a solid grasp and high confidence in writing slam poetry, I think there were more steps to the process than I had anticipated or had time to add. My first steps were on track in terms of Vygotskys zone of

Zeller 5

proximal development. Before the unit, most of my students claimed to know nothing of slam poetry, and so clearly were in the outer circle of Vygotskys model, or the What I Cant Do zone. By discussing a couple models of slam poetry as a class before diving into the group work, I was able to begin the unit with a very social, teacher-involved activity, and thus enter into the What I Can Do With Help zone in his model. I tried to push students further into that zone by removing myself from their group collaboration, which produced two reactions. The first, students expressed relief to work together for their first try rather than alone, which further supports Vygotskys theory that students learn best first in a social environment. However, perhaps more time with my help was needed, as the second reaction can best be illustrated by complaints that they had not quite felt ready to write it collaboratively without more of my help on the composition process. My goal was to get to the Vygotskys center zone of proximal development, in which students would have the capacity to independently use slam poetry in a personal manner. Clearly since they did not feel accomplished in that middle ring of development, however, pushing them further would have proved stagnant. The way in which I would further scaffold this activity would have been to start a new day, after these two, by having them list facts that they have come to know true about life (to access their personal ideas and experiences), partner with one other person, and collaborate to write another slam poem, some way collaborating their lists. This way, they would still be working in a social environment, but more concentrated groups. Once the poem was written, I would give time to brainstorm as a class (by watching more models and taking note) ways to creatively perform the poem, like how to divide up the lines, tone, gestures, facial expressions, etc in order to access this part of the literacy activity and explore the dimensions of performance, again accessing Vygotskys social learning theory. After coming up with a solid list, I would

Zeller 6

challenge the partners to add at least three of these elements to their poem, and to rehearse until it is fluid. If they are nervous, I would have them perform for me, or at the very least allow me to see their written version of the poem so that I could provide constructive feedback to build confidence and decrease affective filters. Hopefully by the end, they would have at least experienced performance through performing as a group before, or be willing to record themselves performing this individual poem, even if they are still nervous. Finally, I would open up class to for time for performance, or to videotape the performances for the class to watch. The final part in my slam poetry unit would be to have each student write their own poem, come up with their own ways of performing, and then performing it. Hopefully by then the social learning would have increased their understanding and confidence enough that they would feel capable of trying it on their own. In this way, I would hope to have scaffolded the activity enough so that not only are students ready in the end to use slam poetry to explore their identities, but that they have already done it, and have the confidence to do it again. Because slam poetry is such a raw and vulnerable art form, a lot more scaffolding than what I provided was needed for my students to achieve the ultimate goal of encouraging them to join a conversation of literature, and thereby use it to explore their own voices and identities.

Zeller 7

Works Cited Guerrero, Nicholas. 15 March, 2012. Discussion Post. Lin, Jeremy. 10 March, 2012. Discussion Post. McLeod, S. A. (2008). Simply Psychology; Erik Erikson | Psychosocial Stages. Retrieved 4 April 2012, from <http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html> Wilmsen, Claire. 11 March, 2012. Discussion Post.