Corrected: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the number of performers who could qualify for prizes of $1,000-$20,000, plus money for their schools, in the national Poetry Out Loud competition. The correct number is nine.
Mount Vernon, Wash.
Everyone is standing up and shouting at once in Lance Fisher鈥檚 English class, and that鈥檚 exactly what he wants them to do.
Fisher鈥檚 12th grade students are reciting鈥攎ore like hurling鈥攑oems at the walls. They stand in a big circle, facing outward, simultaneously reciting poems they鈥檝e memorized (or almost memorized). The teenagers work on projecting their voices, animating their faces, gesturing with their hands. Snippets of verse by dead and living poets zig through the air.
In this class, poetry isn鈥檛 a sit-at-your-desk-and-try-to-stay-awake affair. It鈥檚 a stand-up-and-get-into-it thing. But this isn鈥檛 鈥渟lam鈥� poetry, where students perform their own work. Here, students memorize and recite other people鈥檚 poems.
The idea seems old-fashioned, even quaint at first. Until you get hit with a flying chunk of Natalie Diaz (鈥淎ngels don鈥檛 come to the reservation,鈥� one girl snarls), or wince at a melancholy slice of Robert Frost (鈥淚鈥檓 done with apple-picking now,鈥� says one student, trying out a wistful tone).
Fisher鈥檚 work with these students is part of a national program that seeks to persuade students that reciting other people鈥檚 poetry can be as transformative as performing their own.
A Powerhouse Teaching Tool
English teachers say that memorizing and reciting aren鈥檛 dusty relics, but powerful levers that help them impart key skills to students: acquiring deep understanding of text structure and author鈥檚 purpose; building vocabulary, and finding a personal connection to written language.
鈥淚 just like them having the words in their mouths,鈥� said Fisher, who has been teaching English at Mount Vernon High School, an hour鈥檚 drive from the Canadian border, for nine years. 鈥淭he language is so much higher than what they鈥檙e normally using.鈥�
He finds that the memorize-and-recite approach supports his teaching of common-core standards in reading and speaking. It also helps his English-learner students by exposing them to aspects of language they don鈥檛 otherwise use, Fisher said.
There are many ways to teach poetry through memorization and recitation, but the one Fisher is using is called Poetry Out Loud. It was developed in 2005 by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, and is supported by NEA grants to states. Free for schools, it includes an online anthology of 900 poems by a diverse array of poets, performance videos, and a teacher鈥檚 guide with lesson plans.
Schools that participate in the program host schoolwide competitions that feed into regional contests. Local winners perform for cash prizes at the state level, and those contests produce an elite crop of about 50 who come to Washington, D.C., all-expenses paid, each April to vie for the national title.
The top nine performers on the national circuit can win $1,000 to $20,000, plus additional cash for their schools. More than 300,000 students from 2,300 high schools across the country competed last year.
鈥榊ou Really Have to Understand鈥�
Eileen Murphy became a fan of Poetry Out Loud 12 years ago, when she was a high school English teacher in Chicago. She taught creative writing and coached slam poetry, but she found that having her students memorize other people鈥檚 verse deepened their understanding of written and spoken English in unique ways.
鈥淭o memorize, you have to assume the voice of the speaker, and to do that, you really have to understand what they鈥檙e saying,鈥� said Murphy, who wrote a book about using poetry to teach complex text and now runs a Chicago-based company that supports writing instruction.
That鈥檚 what Ava Ross, a student in Fisher鈥檚 class in Washington state, discovered. She had to read her chosen poem, 鈥�Mr. Darcy,鈥� a contemplation of marriage priorities by 47-year-old American poet Victoria Chang, many times to master its meaning and rhythms. Knowing she鈥檇 have to say it out loud to other people required her to dig deeper than if she only had to read it silently to herself, she said.
鈥淭o get the delivery right, to pause in the right places, to emphasize the right words, you really have to get everything that鈥檚 going on in the poem,鈥� Ross said.
In Fisher鈥檚 class, memorization starts with the hands. He asks his seniors to copy their poems by hand five times, a repetition that helps students cement the words in their heads, he said.
Then they move into another approach: They reduce the poem to abbreviations. They write only the first letter of each word in each line. Then they have to decode each line by remembering what the letters stand for.
Gradually, they take on bigger pieces of their poems. They鈥檙e encouraged to recite chunks of the poem to friends, to the bathroom mirror, walking to school, anywhere they can.
Moving From Memorizing to Reciting
Ross鈥� target was the windshield of her car. She recited her poem while driving to school or to friends鈥� houses.
鈥淚 just did it over and over while I was driving around,鈥� she said.
Related Video
The Poetry Out Loud program teaches students the art of poetry recitation. The competition includes 53 students from each state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. After the two-day competition, which was held in the nation鈥檚 capital, Samara Elan Huggins from Georgia was named the 2017 Poetry Out Loud National Champion for her recitation of 鈥淭he Farmer鈥� by W.D. Ehrhart:
While students are memorizing their poems, they鈥檙e also writing journal entries about them, and discussing them in class. Fisher uses the popular TP-CASTT method to help students analyze their poems. (TP-CASTT stands for title, paraphrase, connotation, attitude/tone, shift, title, and theme.) The students paraphrase each line, then wade into guided discussion about themes and tone.
Recitation strategies can be fun: Students perform tongue-twister exercises to work on diction. Fisher encourages them to stand up tall and talk 鈥渢o and through鈥� the walls (loud, in other words). Your aim, he tells the students, is to let the strength of the poem鈥攏ot a hefty dose of drama鈥攃arry the delivery.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to die on stage like in Shakespeare to make this meaningful,鈥� Fisher said. 鈥淛ust anchor on that poem and deliver it with power.鈥�
Before students stand up to recite simultaneously, he guides them to think about places in their poems where they could use an appropriate hand or facial gesture (鈥渓ike when you talk to your friends鈥�), places they could inject a meaningful pause, or speed up; places they could use a slightly higher vocal pitch to emphasize a point.
First, the students work in pairs at their desks, reciting their poems to each other. They repeat that exercise in table groups of four. Then they form the big outward-facing circle, and launch into the all-at-once recitation.
Snippets of Victoria Chang crash into lines from Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, James Whitcomb Riley, and David Dominguez. It鈥檚 a loud, spirited collision of words. But few students are comfortable enough yet to throw in even one hand gesture.
Facing the walls was supposed to put students at ease; they didn鈥檛 have to see an audience. But now they have to up their game. Everyone in the big circle turns from the walls inward, to face one another. They recite again. This time most students seem more relaxed, though a few nervous smiles punctuate the poems. More practice lies ahead.
Surprising Discoveries
Whether any of these students makes the cut for regional, state, or national competition is a question for another day. Right now, at least a few are enjoying a surprise: It turns out that they like poetry.
Ajeetpal Punian had to study poetry in other English classes. He never liked it; the teacher assigned poems, and the ensuing class conversations made him feel like there was a right way and a wrong way to understand them.
In Fisher鈥檚 class, he got to choose his own poem: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow鈥檚 鈥淭he Arrow and the Song.鈥� OK, so the fact that it鈥檚 short鈥�12 lines鈥攚as pretty cool, he said.
But as he read it over and over, trying to memorize it, he really got into it. The structure of the poem appealed to him, and his inner scientist鈥擯unian aspires to be an astronautical engineer鈥攔esponded. His love of rap music also opened him to a connection with the words of this guy who鈥檚 been dead for 135 years.
鈥淚 like that it rhymes. I love the structure, how the pieces fit together,鈥� Punian said. 鈥淭his poem could be a rap, the way it flows.鈥�
Music also helped connect Ava Ross to her poem, 鈥淢r. Darcy.鈥� A trombonist, she enjoys marking Chang鈥檚 verse in places where she can raise and lower her voice, or shift the pace of her delivery speed, much like musical notations that direct volume and speed.
Punian said he鈥檇 signed up for Fisher鈥檚 English class to help him write college essays. But the poetry portion of the class has 鈥渙pened me up to a different world.鈥�
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 really care about literature very much,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow I understand there are layers to writing, and if you can decode them, you can understand what it鈥檚 about.鈥�
