Podcasting Poetry Slam

Students should have poetry notebooks which contain copies of poems that teachers have distributed during the year and poems that students have found and/or written. The poems should be across all subject areas.

Poetry slams are a great way to get students excited about reading poetry and are a wonderful tool for oral fluency and reading skills to develop.

The technology teacher would begin the poetry slam by choosing a poem and reading it aloud via a podcast that will be placed on the school website or other designated location. Students will have time to listen to the podcast during the course of a couple of days and then submit their slams in response to the poem.

A slam is when you can make a connection to the poem read aloud and connect it to another poem. For example, "I have a connection to the poem you read about The Fall Season with my poem about Pumpkins because pumpkins are typically harvested in the fall."

The winning slam is chosen and that student comes and records the poem via the podcasting system and it is put up on the website and then the next round of slams are submitted. This poetry slam would continue throughout the year and would be a great way to engage students in poetry reading in a fun and creative way.