Jeffrey Dunn

Poetry Slam Presentation

November 24th, 2011 by dunnj

There is a lot to love about the new Common Core States Standards, but the absence of focus on the development of student voice doesn’t leave me all warm and fuzzy. I find it shameful that we educators have allowed the voices of functional and cultural literacy to dominate and have given up our interests in liberal and critical literacy so willingly. It is an historical commonplace that all authoritarian and imperialistic regimes move to take away the voice of those ruled. I invite you to read the Common Core State Standards, especially in the area of Writing, and think about how the idea of voice is absent and how the idea of “formal style and objective tone” is privileged. One antidote is to introduce the cultural practice of “Poetry Slam” into the classroom experience. To this end in October 2011, Jamie Shepherd and I delivered a presentation on “Poetry Slam” in the classroom to a group of educators at the Washington Language Arts Council convention at Central Washington University. Clink on this link, constructed in Prezi format, for our Poetry Slam Presentation.

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