Open mic classroom activities or school events can improve students’ engagement with their writing and help shy students open up, but they also require careful preparation, experts say.
When planning a poetry slam or open mic reading night, educators need to think intentionally about the environment they want to create, building up to the event in a way to ensure that all students — even those least-inclined to step up to the mic — feel included, and that audience members are supportive.
Creating the space to take risks and for students to be in “discovery play mode” means building norms of trust for how they respond to each other, said Heather Schwartz, practice advisor at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.
“Students need explicit guidance about how to give feedback,” she said. “It’s not necessarily clear to them exactly how to be helpful and kind but still feel free to share areas where they think their peers can grow.”
Get the audience involved up front to be positive and encouraging, said Peter Kahn, a member and featured presenter for the National Council of Teachers of English and a consultant with Columbus, Ohio-based Schooled on Poetry.
“If I were going up [on stage], I would say, ‘Hi, my name’s Peter,’ and then the audience would say, ‘Hi, Peter!” in an exaggerated way,” he said. “And you say, ‘My poem’s good,’ and the audience says, ‘Yes, it is!’ to psyche them up.”
Schwartz said she finds that sharing her own writing while it’s still in draft stage and modeling how to take feedback can be helpful in preparing students to do the same.
“You don’t have to make any changes, but be willing to hear feedback,” she said. “And give them the opportunity to practice like it’s the real thing — mimicking that opportunity, whether it’s putting them in front of a microphone or having an audience of guests where they don’t know everyone.”
For students who still seem “super-reticent” about getting on stage, Schwartz suggests working with them one-on-one. “But if you create that kind of culture where everyone is supporting everyone, most students are willing to share something,” she said.
When faced with students who seem like they truly don’t want to participate, Kahn, a former English teacher and spoken word educator, hopes that some part of them does — and he attempts to draw that out.
“I would talk to them [and say], ‘If you are nervous, or scared, that just means you’re a human being,’” he said. “Fear and excitement elicit the exact same physical response. Instead of saying, ‘I’m scared,’ say, ‘I’m excited.’”
Kahn suggests pairing students up with one another to provide feedback, perhaps looking for their favorite lines and talk about which parts of the poem or story “popped off the page.”
Students who feel confident from the get-go should be assigned as “captains” for the event and paired up with more nervous kids, Kahn said. “They’re not going to need as much practice time on their own.”
Time permitting, Kahn suggests inviting a visiting writer to a workshop in which students have the opportunity to share their work with the guest and garner feedback.
Once the open mic activity or event itself approaches, prepare the audience to show appreciation by clapping before and after the performance and snapping when they hear those “striking lines,” as a way to create a call-and-response dynamic without disrupting the speaker’s flow, he said.
“You can hear through the snap — you couldn’t through the clap,” Kahn said. “And talk about being in the moment and respecting the mic: If someone is talking about how their grandma passed away, and they look out in the audience, you don’t want to be smiling. If it’s a humorous poem, you don’t want to be stone-faced. Be in the moment, and let your face and body language reflect that.”
For a poetry slam or other competition, Kahn prefers not to show students’ scores as they’re assessed to cut down on the stress level. “If you’re doing a slam, it’s inherently a competition — but wait until the end and just announce a runner-up and a champion,” he suggested.
When planning the event, it’s better to involve students as much as possible to give them a sense of ownership “in terms of how we greet people as they’re entering, what we call it, how the seating works, the lineup," Schwartz said. “Because it doesn’t feel like something that’s being done to them but something they’re being invited into, fully.”
