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Poetry Slam Learning Resources

Contents 2 A quick guide to Slam poetry3 Ten things to consider4 Make a poetry Slam part of your curriculum6 Ten top tips for Slam poetry

A quick guide to Slam poetry

The word SLAM is just another word for competition. The poet must writeand perform their own work. The poem is timed (2-3mins) and scoredby/with audience input.

Slams began in the United States with Marc Smith, a factory worker fromChicago who ran poetry readings in the Greenmill in 1980s. Marc wantedto get the audience more involved, so he asked the audience to score thepoets. Slams made poets think much more about their audience audiences loved it.

The Slam idea quickly spread from Chicago to New York where BobHolman took it to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (the home of performancepoetry). There it quickly took off and spread across the USA.

Now there are hundreds of regular slams run in schools, clubs, bars, pubs,theatres and festivals all over the world, with slammers pitting their skillsagainst each other. ConFAB (Scotland) has the longest running SchoolSlams in the UK. You can view these on YouTube:www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfXL5_ZYm1E

It is a very open form and anyone can put on a slam. They are run in manydifferent ways but the general rules are the same.

Marc Smith says: If the competition takes over the poetry, then the poetryhas lost.

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Ten things to consider

l Slam is a term used to describe a competition of performance poetry.This goes in rounds of rubrics like 8-4-2 to the winner and is judged bythe audience (traditionally) giving scores out of ten, e.g., 8.3, 9.2 or outof a hundred, e.g., 83/93. Often limits are imposed, like 2-3 minutes orone poem each round. This means that you must have more than onepoem prepared.

l It is called Slam poetry because it is written with Slam competition inmind. However you can be a fantastic performance poet but never wina slam. This is more to do with the time limits, subject matter and theear and experience of the slam audience. However, dont lose sightthat in the end its all just poetry. This is why the mantra, the best poetnever wins is advised by Marc Smith founder of Slam.

l It might be best to keep Slams internal to the group until your group isconfident and comfortable before you put them up against othergroups or in front of an audience. Its about building up confidence intheir words, thoughts and ideas. I would suggest that you dont put ona Slam to an audience in the school who has NOT gone through thesame process of the performers on stage.

l It is important that IF you run a Poetry Slam for young people that youmake it as fun as possible. Do not focus too much on the competition:say, This is JUST for fun. It can be a very scary thing to perform yourown words and thoughts to an audience of your peers: even adultsfind this hard!

l It is important when scoring a slam that you are generous with thescore. Never give out zero: keep scores high. They deserve goodpoints just for getting up. Remember the aim is to encourage. Keep itpositive. Ban booing: its easy to be critical, but its a lot harder to getup there and do it.

l Slam or performance poetry is not written for the page but for the stageand it must be remembered the audience is only going to hear the poemonce. Metaphor can work well here but sophisticated and subtlewordplay, which works on the page, might go unnoticed by an audience.

l Remember that there are no real rules in poetry and the creativewriting of a poem is very different to the analysis of a poem. Creativewriting is more about reflecting expressing the internal self and theworld that surrounds the internal self. So encourage them to writeabout what they know.

l Never force anybody to perform their poem if they are not ready to doso. Let them sit it out and encourage them again next time. They haveto learn to choose themselves. Slam needs an audience too: the more

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they see the more they will learn

l Take the focus off the spelling and grammar and put the focus onperformance. Its more important that they read out loud tothemselves: this allows them to hear the rhythm and rhyme.

l Its also best not too focus too much on who wins, even if they arevery good. If you choose to give out prizes, make sure they are notgrand but more encouraging or maybe very silly to emphasize that itsjust for fun!

Make a poetry Slam part of your curriculum

EXPLORE A TEXT

You can examine different character viewpoints and voices using a poetryslam, focusing on points in a text where characters are in conflict. Forinstance, the differing viewpoints of the two doctors in Flowers forAlgernon could be explored by different teams in a poetry slam.

You could even convey one characters dilemma by using two differentpoems, representing the conflicting voices in a characters head: forexample, Hamlets internal conflict over whether or not to kill Claudiuscould be conveyed using a poetry slam.

EXPLORE AN ISSUE

A poetry slam is a great way to explore pupils ideas about differentviewpoints on a moral or social issue. If your school is focusing on racism,environmental issues or any other controversial topic, a poetry slam couldbe an ideal opportunity for pupils to explore different sides of the argumentand convey viewpoints through poetry.

CREATE A DIGITAL STORY TO GO WITH YOUR PUPILS POEMS

You could ask pupils to create a digital story to go with their poems, whichwill really test their critical thinking!

A digital story is a series of images, videos or text (or a combination of allthese) which conveys a narrative. A good place to start in digitalstorytelling is our Booktrailer Masterclass videos. In particular, Lesson 3and 4 will tell you where to go looking for images, sounds and videos, andalso how to use simple editing tools. You can find the videos here:www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/cpd/toolkits/booktrailer-masterclass

Eng 3-19a

Lit 3-06a

Lit 3-25a

Lit 3-15a

Eng 3-31a

HWB 3-14a

Lit 3-02a

Lit 3-03a

Lit 3-01a

Lit 3-09a

HWB 3-14a

HWB 3-13a

Tch 3-03a

Tch 3-04a

HWB 3-14a

Eng 3-31a

CfE

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A NOTE ON CFE OUTCOMES

The outcomes listed for each activity above are not definitive. Dependingon how you choose to implement the ideas in your school, you may findthat you achieve other outcomes. You may also find that you do notachieve all the outcomes listed above. The outcomes are mostly applicableto Level 4 and the senior phase as well as Level 3. The ideas are designedso you can put your own stamp on them see where they take you!

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Ten top tips for Slam poetry

1) WRITE & PERFORM YOUR OWN POEM

This is the only rule of slam poetryYou can be funny, serious or just downright silly but it must be yours.

2) BE BRAVE

This is your right to speakIts your chance to say how you feel about the world around you.

3) START WITH THE WORDS

And the rest will followStart with a list. Trust yourself. Youre unique: the words are yours.

4) RHYME IS NOT OBLIGATORY

Poetry does not have to rhymeRhyme is very difficult so dont worry about it. Think rhythm.

5) DONT GET HUNG UP ON THE SPELLING

Get into the creative flow first Its more important to speak the words of your poem out loud whencreating it.

6) BREATHE

The breath is the foundation to the voiceAlso remember to breathe at the end of lines.

7) THINK EMOTION

Think of an emotion behind the poemTry lots of different emotions see what works best for the poem.

8) LEARN YOUR LINES

The brains a muscle the more you use it, the better it is!Put the poem up on a toilet/kitchen wall and read it every time youenter/leave the room. It will come!

9) ENJOY

If you dont enjoy it why should the audience? A slam is just for fun! Dont take it too seriously, even if you win.

10) REMEMBER

The best poet never wins. Marc Smith founder of Slam Poetry

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A quick guide to Slam poetryTen things to considerMake a poetry Slam part of your curriculumen top tips for Slam poetry