poetry slam

we are in the middle of our poetry unit in language arts

and the students have been memorizing 

poems from the lit text for our poetry slam...

it was such a simple thing, but with all 

of the lights off and some white lights strung up

and the overhead (with an opaque sheet added to decrease blindness)

the effect was quite nice...

here's the shadow view during a presentation...

*students were able to choose any poem with 20+ lines of verse

or 2-3 shorter poems (haiku or limerick)

*props and special outfits were encouraged, 

we had glitter scattered into the light, background music, etc...

*I typed up a peer evaluation form with the following categories:

stage presence, entertainment value of the poem, 

audibility, and sparkle

*Students evaluated one another in each of the four categories

to stay engaged as an audience and to take the pressure off

the performer

*we used snap-plause instead of applause to remain cool and hip 

during the slam...

it was super fun and I was so proud of all of my students!

we even had a visit from admin and some parents...