Apr
16
The Poetry Lab:
Filed Under Lab Stories, Mary's Blog
Students shuffle into the Writer’s Lab and file into one of eight, cushioned, office chairs placed around a rectangular conference table. Some greet the co-facilitators in the room and enquire about the group’s activities for the day while others quietly slouch into chairs and wait for the group to begin. One student trickles in after all the rest, plops down in the last available seat and immediately puts his head down on the table.
The group begins.
“Everyone in the circle is equal… No one’s voice is more important than anyone else’s… Everyone in the circle is a teacher… Everyone in the circle is a student… Everyone has his or her turn to speak… When one is speaking, all others listen… The circle is sacred and special.”
Most of the students reference a brightly colored poster hanging in the Writer’s Lab to recite the creed, but some know it by heart.
The guidelines in the group are used to support and encourage students to establish social connections and build community. With these group norms, the Poetry Lab becomes a safe place for students to get over their fears about reading and writing and gain confidence in their literacy.
“Today we are going to spend the first half of the hour working on a writing prompt,” one of the co-facilitators begins to explain. “And then we’ll spend the remainder of the hour in the studio, recording the poems we’ve been working on over the last 5-weeks.”
“YES,” exclaims one of the students!
Suddenly, the student with his head down on the table peaks an eye through the top of his hood and announces, “I’m only doing it if I can use beats.”
The co-facilitators ensures the student that there will be an opportunity to use beats, but that it is important to practice and get comfortable using the microphone, hearing the sound of your own voice and recording without beats first.
Poetry provides a way for urban youth to develop critical writing and thinking skills and gain confidence in literacy through an art form that they can relate to. The construction of words into poetic stanzas requires skills and knowledge that are linked to one’s ability to think, read, write, and communicate (1). Each of these elements of poetry are utilized in the Poetry Lab and are primarily drawn from the world of hip-hop and spoken word poetry. From Sekou Sundiata to Tupac Shakur, Stephen Coleman to Lupe Fiasco, Langston Hughes to Common and Lucille Clifton to Kanye West, students hear the stories of their own lives reflected and in turn write poetry as a means of self-expression.
The students settle in and begin to focus as the co-facilitator hands out a copy of the poem and begins to read.
What matters to me is home, family, religion
The truth is I’m more than what I appear to be
But the problem is no one ever looks to see
Therefore, how will you ever get to know me
(T. 10th grader)
After a brief discussion, the co-facilitator hands each student a piece of loose-leaf paper and a sharpened pencil and asks the students to reflect on their own thoughts, using the prompt, “What matters to me…”
A mellow, musical beat is played in the background while the students begin to translate their thoughts onto paper. For some students, writing comes easy and they have an entire page full of words, while other students get hung-up on the spelling of a word or making sure that every line rhymes. All students are reinforced with positive encouragement and reminded that in the Poetry Lab, spelling and grammar don’t count, that writing is confidential and that they will never be required to read their work out loud, if they don’t want to.
The Poetry Lab allows space for youth to share their thoughts in writing, without an emphasis on grammar or spelling. The emphasis is on pre-literacy and getting comfortable with writing, by simply writing from the heart. Students are supposed to write for pleasure, to play with language, word choice and even creative spelling ideas. This freedom allows for their first steps into literacy, instead of getting paralyzed with the fear of misspelled words.
After writing for a few minutes, attention is called back to the group. The students are asked to re-read through what they have written and to underline one line or one word that they like and to read it out loud in the circle. Students are again reminded that if they are not comfortable reading out loud that they may choose to, “pass”.
“What matters to me is staying strong for my family” (J).
“What matters to me is my President” (S).
“What matters to me is waking up every morning” (D).
“Pass”
“Getting old” (N).
And the circle continues… after everyone around the table has had an opportunity to share a line or word with the group, students are asked to volunteer to read their entire poem.
The success of the Poetry Lab rides on the facilitator’s ability to create and maintain a safe space for a circle of student writers. As early as the first session, students begin to share and learn key things about each other, become more comfortable with writing and feel a strong sense of community. As the weeks move on, the group becomes more cohesive: more trust, more writing and more sharing. Over time, students discover the joy of language, forge new positive identities in the context of a youth driven writer’s community and practice social skills and healthy coping strategies in a strengths-based groupwork model.
Now that the students have experienced the Poetry Lab for 5-weeks, they are ready to begin recording their poems onto a group CD. For many students, this is one of the highlights of the group and they take pride in having a recorded keepsake of their Poetry Lab experience.
Not all students are comfortable in front of a microphone, which is why all the poems that are written during the group are collected each week and eventually published in an annual Poetry Lab Anthology that comes out at the end of each school year.
And so the Poetry Lab goes, week by week, month by month, writing prompts are offered, poems are written, some are shared out loud, some are recorded onto a CD and some are published in an Anthology.
Writing in many forms has been shown to be a liberating and curative intervention. Through hip-hop and spoken word poetry, The Poetry Lab is forging forward to help students identify issues, express feelings, improve confidence and increase literacy in an environment driven by creative adults and positive peer support.
Bibliography
1. Jocson, K. (May 2nd 2005). Promoting Literacy and Critical Writing Skills through Poetry. UC Accord Publications. Retrieved from http://ucaccord.gseis.ucla.edu/publications/pubs/pb-012-0505.pdf
2. Morrell, E., Duncan-Andrale, J. (July 2002). Promoting Academic Literacy with Urban Youth through Engaging Hip-hop Culture. Retrieved from http://www.annenbergmedia.org/workshops/middlewriting/images/pdf/W2ReadPromoting.pdf
