1. Day 18 (our last day of learning poetry!)
Performance in Poetry
Day 18 (our last day of learning poetry!)

2. Today’s Goals Focus Questions
To understand how a dramatic reading can impact tone and Meaning
To embody a poem and provide one’s voice to someone else’s words
Learning to perform poems dramatically will increase student understanding of the poems they read.
What is the importance of performance in poetry?
How can you have an effective performance?

3. Tips and Tricks Watch video Answer the questions
(3:34)
(15:16)
Answer the questions

4. One extra video for support:
DeHMVAkM
@ 1:48

5. Read and select poems Work independently, pairs, or groups
Annotate the poem with (* ! ?)
READ THE POEM MORE THAN ONCE
Decide as a group what is the most important part about their poem.
Then discuss how that should be presented, if the poem were to be performed.

6. Watch the performances
Now we’re going to view a performance of each of these poems
You are to analyze this person’s interpretation of the poem compared to your groups
If you group’s is not being presented, still analyze the performance.

7. Questions about the Slams:
What do you notice about how the poem was presented (body language, position on the stage, voice tone, expression, gestures, etc.)?
How did the performance techniques add to the experience of the poem?
What was the overall tone or mood of the poem?
What techniques did the performers employ?
How did you (as a listener) respond to the performance? To the poem?

8. Performances: “A Fixed Idea” by Amy Lowell (1:29)
“Undivided Attention” by Taylor Mali (2:11)
“truth” by Gwendolyn Brooks (1:11)
“Alone” by Edgar Allen Poe (2:30)