Day Five -- African American Poets

Dana Bryant "Heat" poem available here (taken from Songs of the Siren: Tales of Rhythm and Revolution)		Dana Bryant CD: Wishing From the Top Tracks: "Heat" (Track one)
	Saul Williams "Untitled" poem available here (taken from She)		Saul Williams Book/CD: She available here
Paul Beatty "Dib Dab" (available here) taken from "Joker Joker Deuce" passed out previous day		Reg E. Gaines "Please Don't Take My Air Jordans" available here passed out previous day
	Tupac Shakur Poems: "In the Event of my Demise" & "The Rose That Grew From the Concrete" (both available here) both taken from "The Rose That Grew From the Concrete"		Wyclef Jean CD: Carnival Song: Gone 'Til November Song Lyrics available here CD available here
Salt N Pepa CD: Blacks' Magic Song: Do You Want Me Song Lyrics available here CD available here		Film: Slam (widely available at most videostores, click movie title for more info)

Content Standard 1.3:	Selectively employ the most effective strategies to construct meaning, such as evaluating for specific information, deciding how to represent content through summarizing and performing.Respond (personally, analytically, and critically) to a variety of oral, visual, written, and electronic texts, making connections to their personal lives and the lives of others (or providing examples of how texts influence their lives and their role in society).
Content Standard 1.5:	Selectively employ the most effective strategies to construct meaning, such as evaluating for specific information, deciding how to represent content through summarizing and performing.
Content Standard 5.1:	Select, read, listen to, view, and respond thoughtfully to both classic and contemporary texts recognized for quality and literary merit.
Content Standard 8.2:	Students will describe and use characteristics of various narrative genres and elements of narrative technique to convey ideas and perspectives.
Content Standard 3.3	Read and write fluently, speak confidently, listen and interact appropriately, view critically and represent creatively.
Content Standard 3.8	Students will analyze their responses to oral, visual, written, and electronic text, providing examples of how texts affect their lives, connect them with the contemporary world, and transmit issues across time.
Content Standard 2.2	Recognize and approximate authors' innovative techniques to convey meaning and influence an audience when composing their own texts
Content Standard 9.3	Synthesize content from multiple texts representing varied perspectives in order to formulate principles and generalizations.

Students will come into the classroom, and the teacher will briefly recap the week's lessons -- learning how to appreciate rap, learning about the Harlem Renaissance, learning about mid-century and some contemporary poets, and learning about social activism in poetry. Where does that leave us today? The poets of today.

Copies of two Tupac Shakur poems will be passed out, with no credit given to the author (yet). The poems will each be read aloud by two volunteers in the class. After reading them, the teacher will ask the class what they thought of the poem. Then, the teacher will reveal who the poet was. This will let kids see immediately the rap-poetry connection that the rest of the class will be dealing with. Another interesting fact to note is that there are college courses wholly dedicated to studying Shakur's poetry, and four books of his poetry have been released since his death. The next question to be posed may well be what the path between this poetry on paper and rap is. The answer is spoken word, which is the next segue.

The teacher will pass out copies of Dana Bryant's poem "Heat". Students will be given instruction to underline key phrases and lines in the poem that Bryant gives particular emphasis to while speaking it, as well as where the music is most notable. Then the recorded version of "Heat" will be played. After the poem is played, the class will return to a brief whole-class discussion about the poem, discussing what was emphasized heavily by Bryant during her reading and what the music added (or took away) from the words of the poem. How these two facets of the poem contributed to the piece's overall tone will also be discussed.

After hearing the Bryant poem, more preparation for the slam activity will be needed. Saul William's untitled poem will be passed out, and a clip of Williams recording it on his audio book will be played on CD. Next, another clip from the film "Slam" will be shown, this time from the final scene. This features two spoken word slam performances by Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn. The teacher will play the clip, and the students will see an example of what a poetry slam looks like. It will also be interesting to note the Dana Bryant and Saul Williams were both Grand Slam champions, a national award given to this "sport".

After hearing the Bryant poem, students will be asked to take out their copies of Reg E. Gaines' "Please Don't Take My Air Jordans" and Paul Beatty's "Dib Dab". Students were to have practiced reading them in front of the mirror the night previously for homework, and were told that two of them sould be asked to perform the poems today in class. The teacher will ask for volunteers first, and hopefully will have practiced the poems and gotten excited enough about performing them to volunteer. (If there are no volunteers, it will be necessary to choose two students randomly)

The two volunteers will then be asked to read the poem aloud for the class in a performance slam style. The audience will be instructed to applaud wildly after each reading. There will be no scorers, but this concept will be explained to the class after the readings.

After the "poetry slam", the concept of rap will be brought up. It will be explained that while some poets prefer the written word or spoken word, other poets prefer some rhythm. The definition of rap (Rythmic American Poetry) should be given.

Copies of the lyrics to Wyclef Jean's "Gone Till November" will be passed out, and the song will be played. After the song is played, a discussion about the poem will take place -- i.e. the plotline about a man who leaves his wife to deal drugs, the allusions it uses. Afterwards, students will be asked to recall Langston Hughes' "The Weary Blues" (a snippet of the song may need to be played again) to see the similarities in structure between the two. Hughes' poetry was mostly based on the eight-bar blues song, and so is most rap.

Afterwards, Salt n Pepa's "Do You Want Me" will be played. This is mostly just a fun song (although its message of absinence is a good one), but it incorporates the eight-bar blues song style and a specific poetic rhyme scheme. Afterwards, a discussion about the aspects of poetry that appear in popular black music will take place.

Teacher Will:	Students Will:
Recap with students what they have done for the week and where they're at now.	Listen and ask questions, if any.
Pass out copies of two Tupac Shakur poems will be passed out, with no credit given to the author (yet). Ask for volunteer to read the poems. After reading them, the teacher will ask the class what they thought of the poem. Then, the teacher will reveal who the poet was.	Receive papers and volunteer to read the poems. Participate in discussion.
Pass out copies of Dana Bryant's poem "Heat".	Receive papers
Give instruction to underline key phrases and lines in the poem that Bryant gives particular emphasis to while speaking, as well as where the music is most notable.	Ask questions, if any.
Play poem.	Underline key phrases in poem where Bryant gives particular emphasis.
Lead discussion about what the students underlined and why. How does it contribute to tone?	Discuss what they underlined in poem.
Pass out Saul Williams untitled poem, and play the CD version of it.	Listen to poem.
Segue into live performance clip of Saul Williams from the film "Slam". Play clip.	Watch clip.
Lead discussion about the slam poetry depicted on the film. How was it different than Williams' CD reading?	Participate in teacher-guided, student-centered discussion based on aformentioned question.
Ask students to get out the poems that were passed out last night -- Paul Beatty's "Dib Dab" and Reg E. Gaines' "Please Don't Take My Air Jordans". Remind them that last night they were to have practiced performing the poems. Ask for two volunteers to read the poem in a slam-type activity.	Ask questions, volunteer to read.
After poetry slam, the concept of rap will be brought up. It will be explained that while some poets prefer the written word or spoken word, other poets prefer some rhythm. The definition of rap (Rythmic American Poetry) should be given. Discussion will ensue.	Participate in teacher-guided, student-centered discussion
Pass out copies of Wyclef Jean's "Gone Till November" and play it on CD.	Listen and react to song.
Lead discussion about the poem will take place -- i.e. the plotline about a man who leaves his wife to deal drugs, the allusions it uses.	Discuss poem
Ask students to recall Langston Hughes' "The Weary Blues" (a snippet of the song may need to be played again) to see the similarities in structure between the two. Explain that Hughes' poetry was mostly based on the eight-bar blues song, and so is most rap.	Participate in discussion of similarities between Hughes' works and rap.
Pass out lyrics to and play Salt n Pepa's "Do You Want Me" will be played. Afterwards, a discussion about the aspects of poetry that appear in popular black music will take place.	Participate and discuss song.
Remind everyone of project assignment for over the weekend that is due on Monday.	Ask questions, if any.

1.	Students will see connection between poetry and rap.
2.	Students will understand concept of poetry slam.
3.	Students will be exposed to a number of 1990's African American poets.
4.	Students will see what different ways poets are getting their work to be heard in the current market.
5.	Students will respond to poems and engage in discussions about them.
6.	Students will practice oral speaking and reading skills while futher developing their comfort and confidence in front of a group setting.

1.	Is rap poetry?
2.	Is spoken word and slams poetry?
3.	How can Langston Hughes' work be compared with modern rap?
4.	Does a poetry slam enhance or decrease your enjoyment of poetry?
5.	How do poets go from writing poems on paper to rapping?

1.	Students must be able to react and respond to poetry.
2.	Students must be able to participate in large and small group discussions.
3.	Students should respond both affectively and analytically to poetry.
4.	Students should be able to recognize poetry in non-traditional poetry settings
5.	Students should be comfortable in whole group and small group discussions