Can verse mediate between the educational institution and the wider community of which it is a part? Utilising a case study of a specific taught module, this essay considers whether the performance of poetry as an experiential learning activity has a role to play in the emerging concept of the university as an anchor institution, a term that…

In the fall of 2015, the author conducted a national survey of over 1,000 former high school speech and debate competitors. As he told a colleague, he was drowning in data. It was a good problem to have, but he was not sure how to thoroughly examine the heart of data; how would he make meaning of their experiences? Then, he realized, the answer…

Scholars and teachers often focus only on alphabetic texts in the classroom (Palmeri; Alexander and Rhodes; Jewitt; Selfe; Shipka); however, we do our students a disservice if we do not prepare them to compose with and understand the rhetorical consequences of using a variety of modes. In this article, I argue that we need to teach our students to…

This article addresses the triadic nature regarding meaning construction of texts. Grounded in Rosenblatt's (1995; 1998; 2004) Transactional Theory, research conducted in an undergraduate Language Arts curriculum course revealed that when presented with unfamiliar texts, students used prior experiences, social interactions, and literary strategies…

If Sally knows Sid to be a hard worker, she might make the point by asserting, "Sid is a hard worker." Or she might say, "Sid is a Sherman tank." We all recognize the first as an instance of literal language and the second as an instance of figurative language, specifically, a metaphor. This distinction is common even to people remote from us in…

In this article, the author, a poet and teaching artist, shares how he successfully brought slam poetry to College Hill Middle School in Texarkana, Arkansas. In 2001 he discovered slam poetry--a poetry-reading format in which poets compete in dramatic readings of their works--and went to Slam Nationals in Seattle on the Arkansas slam team. He…

This document presents the proceedings of the 19th Annual Research Forum held June 26, 2014, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 17 action research papers: (1) Using Voices to Change Minds: Oral Performance and Poetry in the English Classroom (Erika Bunpermkoon), (2) Imagining Audiences: The Use…

Examines David Wagoner's poetry to illustrate how interpreters can sensitize themselves to a poem's kinesthetic energy by attending to the physical cues of poetic structure such as sound and rhythmic patterns, line lengths and endings, typography, and tensions and resistances. (JD)

Despite high levels of disengagement in urban literacy classrooms, few teachers have seen fit to explore spoken word--the performance of poetry--as a tool to engage students in literacy. Spoken word poetry serves as a powerful means of self-representation for youth that are traditionally portrayed as threatening, menaces to society that do not…

Provides a test that acquaints students with the metrical structure of a poem by selecting a familiar song that will accommodate the words of the poem. (PD)

Argues that the creative procedures of writing, performing, and interpreting poetry are subtly interrelated. Illustrates this argument with examples from the author's own poetry. (MM)

This article examines the role of intergenerational relationships in the lives of experienced poets and writers ("soldiers") and emerging poets and writers in what the author terms Participatory Literacy Communities (PLCs). Drawing from Wenger's (1998) concept of communities of practice, the author uses data from two examples of PLCs--Black…

Suggestions are offered in this paper for adapting C. S. Lewis's poems for oral interpretation. A discussion of Lewis's lifelong correspondence with his friend Arthur Greeves provides insights into Lewis's perceptions of his own writing. Eighty poems selected from Lewis's "Poems" as appropriate for oral interpretation are classified…

Outlines common abuses that occur when students first use dramatic analysis in oral interpretation. Offers guidelines to help make students' efforts more productive; uses William Carlos Williams's poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" as an example. (PD)

Outlines an exercise that gets students to experience the oral composition of poetry. Describes methods for implementing the exercise; discusses results and advantages. (PD)