Make Cycle #4 Archive: Make a Spoken Word Letter

The fourth summer Make Cycle for Letters to the Next President 2.0 encouraged us to channel our inner poet/inner performer to play with spoken word poetry as a powerful, alternative form for your letter. Here is archive of what happened as well as related resources you are welcome to use/remix as needed this fall:

Welcome to the fourth summer Make Cycle for Letters to the Next President 2.0. This week we encourage you to channel your inner poet, your inner performer to play with spoken word poetry as a powerful, alternative form for your letter.

A spoken word letter can express a personal experience with an election issue in a way that a written letter cannot. Spoken word combines the power of poetry with the power of performance. Your emotion about an issue is conveyed not only in words, but also in your tone of voice, facial expressions and body movement as you deliver your letter-as-poem. So, let’s hear it. What do you want to say to our next president?

Who are we?

KQED Education provides educators with multimedia content, student activities, and professional development tools to help create a 21st century classroom aligned to state and national content standards. We celebrate diversity, embrace innovation, value lifelong learning and partner with those who share our passion for public service.

As co-hosts of the Letters to the Next President 2.0 project and through initiatives such as #MediaMake and #DoNow, KQED has been supporting youth as media makers and critical producers. This week’s Make Cycle is co-produced by KQED as a Spoken Word Letters Media Make for youth, and National Writing Project educators as a Make Cycle for educators.

Work and leadership this week also comes from Youth Speaks, The Poetry Project, and the YOUmedia Learning Labs Network.

Make with Us: Create your own Spoken Word Letter!

There are no set rules to creating a spoken word letter. We encourage you to experiment and find your own creative process. Below are suggested steps to getting started. Feel free to mix them up, break them down and make them your own.

Places to Connect and Share

Here are places where you can connect with other educators and share what you make:

• Post your video on YouTube or SoundCloud, then share the link on Twitter using the hashtag #2NextPrez.
• You can also share via our L2P 2.0 Summer Make Cycles Facebook Group

Archives of Live Events

•  Spoken Word Letters Hangout
• Spoken Word Letter Twitter Chat

Create your own Spoken Word Letter!

As we said, there are no set rules to creating a spoken word letter. We encourage you to experiment and find your own creative process.

These mentor texts can provide inspiration for your poetry. Pay attention to the types of words or phrases used by each poet, and observe the way pauses or gestures impact the performance.

Spoken Word Playlist

Here are suggested steps to getting started. Feel free to mix them up, break them down and make them your own.

Step 1: Determine a Topic

What election issue feels most urgent to you? Is there something that needs to be said about an issue that no one is saying? What message do you want to convey? These questions can help you determine a topic to write about. If a topic feels relevant and personal to you, it will make your spoken word piece more powerful to perform and engaging for your audience. If you need ideas on a topic, check out our Nine Key Election Issues.

Step 2: Start Writing

Getting started can be the hardest part of writing your spoken word poem. Try a few warm up exercises to help the words flow. For example:

• Free write or journal anything that comes to mind about your topic for five minutes.
• Create a word web. Start with your topic in the middle and build a web of related words or ideas around it. You can also find word web apps on Google Play or iTunes.
• Try this special remixed L2P 2.0 Quadbox Poem Starter.
• Experiment with “found poems.” Start with a pre-written text, such as a news article or speech, select keywords from the text, and then reorganize those keywords to create a new poem about the subject. See examples.

Try the letter format by starting your poem with “Dear Next President.” Sometimes having the audience in mind will help the words take shape.

Step 3: Find Your Rhythm

As you write, keep in mind that your piece will be spoken out loud. Developing a rhythm can make it more enjoyable to perform and easier to remember. Just like a song has a beat that establishes its rhythm, your poem has stressed syllables that give it rhythm (called meter in poetry). A poem doesn’t have to rhyme to have rhythm, nor does it have to be spoken at the same speed throughout. In fact, some poets like to speed up or slow down parts of their poem to add emphasis.

Step 4: Practice Performing

A good performance will make your poem come alive. Practice speaking loudly and making eye contact with your listeners, and consider incorporating movement or multimedia for interest. You should also decide if you want to perform the poem from memory or read it from paper. If you choose to memorize, try mastering sections at a time rather than the entire piece from start to finish. If you choose to read it, make sure your paper or device doesn’t hinder your ability to speak loudly or make eye contact with your audience.

Record It

If you have access to a smartphone, use your voice recorder app or video camera to capture your poem. Make sure you record in a quiet environment.

Share Your Work

• Post your video on YouTube or SoundCloud, then share the link on Twitter using the hashtag #2NextPrez.
• You can also share via our L2P 2.0 Summer Make Cycles Facebook Group

Additional Resources

The links below are strong resources for educators interested in implementing spoken word poetry in the classroom.

• Youth Speaks
• 5 Tips on Spoken Word by Power Poetry
• Viewing a Poem as Argument: Helping Students Understand Contemporary Poetry, National Writing Project
• Spoken Word Poetry Empowers Students to Use Authentic Voices, Edutopia
• Remix, Remake, Curate: The Human Soundscape (Make Cycle #2, February 8, 2015)
• Remixing Literacy at at Urban Word NYC