Miles Merrill & Narcisa Nozica's "Slam Your Poetry" teachers' review

Brief description and distinctive features

The Writers

Brief description of Slam Your Poetry

Slam Your Poetry is full of accessible, relevant, engaging and very useful hints, inspiration and ideas for teaching poetry and setting up your own Slam poetry experience.

It opens with an overview of the book’s contents and the subheading, This ain’t Poetry Classics 101, is a valuable starting point. We need to engage adolescents in poetry they can relate to before immersing them in classical poetry and intense critical analysis. The introduction also includes an interesting summary of the “Stories Before Writing” which reminds us of the rich tradition of oral storytelling throughout time. 

Part 1 Write to Speak contains some wonderful hints and tips for writing. 

Part 2 Set up a Slam is very useful if you want to establish a slam event at your school or in your community.

Part 3 Teach and Revolution contains a series of very practical chapters on writing, speaking, drafting, crafting and other relevant tools. It also includes some excellent resources including reference books, video collections, interviews which will enrich your students’ understanding of the power of spoken word. 

Distinctive features of Slam Your Poetry

• This is a substantial text at 319 pages but you can dip in and out of the chapters to find what will work for you.
• It is co-authored by poet/performer Miles Merrill and teacher Narcisa Nozica. It is Miles’s voice in Part 1 and 2 and Narcisa is the voice of Part 3. 
• The Index in the back is very useful as it includes skills, techniques and specific people.
• The tone is accessible in its informality and the writers speak directly to the reader as if they are sharing their favourite insights and ideas as well as their own passion. 
• For stylistic variety there are inserts of what could be called “speech bubbles” which focus on specific skills or ideas. For example, on page 39 there is a speech bubble called CHOP CHOP. The first sentence is “Editing is key to your craft. Cut and rebuild.” It then gives some useful hints on editing adverbs and conjunctions. 
• On p.79 there is a wonderful page which suggests you have fun with some classic poems by adding a beat. Miles suggest you “grab a classic poem like ‘The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock’”: Turn on a beat. Spit some of those old-school verses out loud. You could try this with your Advanced Module B students – what a delight and they will remember the poem so much more if they play with it and “slam” it!
• On 219 there is a terrific list of icebreaker activities/drama games which would be so valuable for a new class to get to know each other and to build trust, collaboration and creative thinking in your class. For example, the “word association” game – start with a word e.g. “cloud” and the you move around the group where each person says the first word that pops into their head. 

Ways to use Slam Your Poetry in the classroom

1. Consider a specific unit of work which concentrates on the spoken word. This could include poems which have a strong sense of voice and students could listen to recordings or spoken versions. Speeches could also be included in the unit as they have authentic audience and purpose. Be sure to choose speeches which will resonate with your students as well as others which will enrich their broader world view.

    

2. To hook students in the concept of the power of the spoken word show a YouTube clip of one or more of these performers:

   • Amanda Gorman at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2020: The Hill We Climb (give students a copy of the poem to follow)
   • Amanda Gorman: Ted Talk (This could be kept until later in the unit but it should be shared as it says so much about the power of poetry.)
   • Luka Lesson: History Books
   • Luka Lesson: Antidote
   • Kae Tempest
   • Troy Wong: Australia, I love you. But…

    

3. Below is a list of poems some of which I referenced in the blog on Homeland Calling. These could be powerful examples of poems to explore as the spoken word or for inspiration for students own writing:

   • Short film which uses the poem Invictus (William Ernest Henley) as promotional film for the Invictus Games
   • Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire
   • Cate Blanchett and a team of actors reading the compelling poem about refugees in What They Took With Them
   • The Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson
   • Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
   • Bob Dylan: A Hard Rain’s Gonna’ Fall, Masters of War, Blowin’ in the Wind
   • Only Nineteen - Redgum or The Herd
   • Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
   • Love Arrives - Sarah Kay and Phil Kay
   • Marryuna - Baker Boy
   • Life Cycle, Weapons Training, Homecoming, Enter Without So Much as Knocking - Bruce Dawe
   • Telephone Conversation - Wole Solyinka
   • Token Koori for Hire - Anita Heiss
   • To This Day - Shane Koyczan
   • September 1937 - W.H. Auden
   • My Last Duchess - Robert Browning
   • Mental Cases - Wilfred Owen
   • Dulce et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen
   • Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night - Dylan Thomas
   • Mending Wall:- Robert Frost

    

4. Incorporate a writing session in each lesson so that writing becomes normalised. Over time students will develop skills and competence the more they write. It is important to develop this in “low-risk, no-risk” situations where students are not being assessed or judged. Chapter 2 is full of excellent ideas to get students writing. I am sure you will have encountered some of these ideas and perhaps even discarded them. For example, there is the “stream of consciousness” or “lightening” or “free” writing (or as Miles calls it “Vomit onto your Page.”) He suggests playing an instrumental track so the lyrics do not distract; students are required to keep writing words until words appear. At first students might need to write “I cannot think of anything” but eventually other words will start to occur. Miles describes this as “mining my surface, finding words hidden just under my awareness … We need a raw explosion”. P.25-26

    

5. As you and your students become more familiar with these writing sessions try to incorporate more ideas from this chapter: Write It:

   1. Write a picture of action: this is valuable when students are writing about a cause or a powerful concept but the passion can be lost in the polemic. For example, Mikes asks “what does a revolution look like? What does it sound like? What does a revolutionary do?” he suggests to go beyond the traditional cliches of “fist in the air and protest signs.” He goes on to advise that whatever you care about don’t tell the audience that it makes you angry or sad or exhilarated but allow the audience to feel and share your emotions through your words. He gives some delightful examples on p.29. Miles reminds us that effective images of action use mostly nouns and verbs with few adjectives and he implores us to “take your audience through those vivid moments that pushed your buttons. Recreate the scene. Walk us into the details.” He offers very important advice when he says: “Do not be didactic” and on P.31 he has a valuable Try This speech bubble which is very accessible.
   2. Other ideas in this chapter:
      1. Six senses
      2. Cut unnecessary Words (some marvellous advice on the power of specific word choices)
      3. Metaphor is message
      4. Your turning points
      5. Perspectives and Tenses (valuable advice on the most effective tense)
      6. Characters and Voice
      7. Rhythm, metre, rhyme
      8. Authenticity and vulnerability.

    

6. Consider sharing Luka Lesson’s powerful and engaging performance poem: May Your Pen Grace the Page.

   This poem is currently prescribed for Standard Module C but that does not stop you from exploring it in Stage 5. I love Luka’s use of the verb ‘grace” – have a class discussion as to the popular understanding of the word and where we see grace in our world. David Malouf refers to “grace” in his poem Ladybird (Advanced Module B).

   Form groups and ask student to list the three best pieces of advice from Luka Lesson. Create a wall chart for your classroom and add advice as you read more poetry. This will provide excellent foundations for Stage 6 Module C.

    

7. Invite a poet or performance poet to your school. Remember that this is part of the way they make a living so we need to be respectful and pay them. If it is too challenging to collect money from your students consider allocating from your faculty budget to pay visiting performance poets. Or seek a grant from your P&C or if you are in an economically-challenged area seek a grant from your local State or Federal member or service club as a sure way to enrich your students’ lives and experiences.

   Luka Lesson has forwarded these details to me re his 2025 schedule:

   • March 3 - 7 // Adelaide (Writers’ Week)
   • March 10-14 // Melbourne
   • March 17 - 21 // Northern NSW
   • March 24 - 28 // Sydney
   • March 31 - April 4 // Brisbane

   Please note that bookings can be made at lukalesson.as.me.

   If you have any questions about Luka’s offerings or the booking process, please feel free to get in touch at education@lukalesson.com. For more details, you can download the Education Brochure from his site.

   Miles Merrill: contact Miles at miles@wordtravels.org.au

   Other performance poets to watch/view are Omar Musa, Kae Tempest, Troy Wong.

   Consider this article on performance poets from The Guardian. Share with your class and use as a reading/comprehension task and students could then write a response to the article. 

   If you haven’t read my blog on Homeland Calling (September 30 2024) please see the links to the writers’ performances and this concept of power and poetry will resonate even further. Desert Pea media have produced 48 videos of the songs featured in the collection.

    

We want our young adults to be bold, strong, have an opinion, advocate for themselves and the future: the spoken word is the ideal vehicle for this.

Relevant details in relation to the new NSW English 7-10 syllabus

Text requirements: Slam Your Poetry is

Concepts could include ? • ? • ?.

Relevant NSW English 7-10 Syllabus content

Focus Area

A student [focus area description] SYLLABUS-CODE

Focus Area topic

• dot point

(English K-10 Syllabus 2022 © NSW Education Standards Authority for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023)

Connecting texts