Using Poetry Slam to Inspire Young Writers in Class
This paper outlines practical, student-centered strategies for incorporating poetry slam into the classroom. Drawing on a 2009 TeacherTube video as an entry point, it describes how teachers can broaden students' understanding of appropriate poetry subjects, encourage critical thinking about slam format and performance, and connect poetry to other disciplines such as music and visual arts. The paper also covers a range of poetic formats—including acrostics and found poetry—and proposes a culminating slam poetry café performance that gives students an authentic, embodied experience with the written word.
- Introduction: Poetry Slam as a Teaching Tool: Using a slam video to spark classroom poetry
- Broadening Students' Ideas About Poetry Subjects: Encouraging unconventional and personal poetry topics
- Analyzing Slam Poetry Format and Performance: Critical thinking about delivery, tone, and themes
- Cross-Curricular Connections: Linking poetry to civic life and music
- Visual Arts, Music, and Multimodal Expression: Using visuals and music to deepen poetry engagement
- Poetic Formats and the Year-End Slam Café: Acrostics, found poetry, and a culminating performance
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What makes this paper effective
- It moves logically from a concrete classroom resource (the TeacherTube video) to progressively broader instructional strategies, giving teachers a clear sequence to follow.
- It balances structured literary instruction (metaphors, similes, alliteration) with open-ended creative exploration, acknowledging that enthusiasm is as important as technical skill.
- It consistently centers the student perspective, grounding every activity in subjects and passions students already care about, which models student-centered pedagogy effectively.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates scaffolded lesson design: each activity builds on the previous one, starting with whole-class brainstorming, moving through guided analysis of slam format, and culminating in an independent student performance. This sequencing reflects an understanding of gradual release of responsibility in instructional design.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a specific video resource and its potential classroom use, then expands outward through subject brainstorming, format analysis, cross-curricular integration, multimodal expression, and finally a year-end performance project. Each paragraph introduces one instructional strategy, keeping the argument focused and easy for educators to translate directly into practice.
Introduction: Poetry Slam as a Teaching Tool
Poetry Slam (2009), available on TeacherTube, is an inspiring, energetic example of how ordinary activities from student life can become the subject of poetry. The poem focuses on gaming, and the student poet uses sound, body language, and the highly visual language of poetry to create a memorable piece of performative art. Showing this video in class is one way to help students recognize the nature of living poetry in their everyday lives.
To begin, the teacher can brainstorm with the class about what types of subjects students associate with poetry, writing their responses on the board. Predictably, students are likely to suggest subjects such as flowers, love, and special occasions like a presidential inauguration. This initial brainstorm sets a baseline that the lesson will then deliberately challenge and expand.
Broadening Students' Ideas About Poetry Subjects
After the initial brainstorm, the teacher can play the poetry slam video about gaming. The teacher can also read a variety of poems written in free verse or on unconventional subjects, both by students and by professional poets. This can lead to a second brainstorming session focused on subjects students do not typically consider appropriate for poetry but which matter deeply to them — homework, friendship, lunch, pets, and other topics they think about constantly.
The teacher can then have students vote on an unconventional subject for the whole class to write about and stage their own mini-slam at the end of the session. This participatory structure gives students ownership over the content and lowers the barrier to creative risk-taking.
Analyzing Slam Poetry Format and Performance
Beyond listening for subject matter, students can be encouraged to think more critically about the format of slam poetry. This might include exploring themes they can build on — not simply subjects — such as humans versus nature, or youth versus age. Discussions can address the types of emotions present in slam poetry: how a speaking poet might use tone and volume to emphasize particular words, how a poem that reads compellingly on the page can fall flat without strong delivery, or, conversely, how an energetic performance can elevate otherwise simple language.
Encouraging this level of critical analysis helps students understand performance poetry as a craft with deliberate choices, not simply spontaneous expression.
References
Poetry Slam. (2009). TeacherTube. Retrieved from http://www.teachertube.com/video/poetry-slam-121685
Write On. (2017). Literacy Trust. Retrieved from http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0001/6013/Write_On_poetry_slam_toolkit_v2.pdf
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