Suggestions & Rubric for Upcoming Slam!

Yes, it's that time of the semester everyone -- SLAM time, and you want to excel at slamming and not get slammed, so here are some suggestions about how to make that happen. Read very carefully please:

Clarification of what constitutes a slam poem:

1.Your poem can adopt a combination of forms -- free verse and rhymed verse, but it must have some sense of rhythm and flow.

2. A well-crafted slam is highly articulate, highly provocative (gets a reaction out of the audience), sophisticated in its detail and in its performance knowledge (how to get a rise out of the audience).

3. It must include personal experience and figurative language (sound devices, imagery, five senses, similes, metaphors, etc.)

4. It is either dramatic (creates a moment of intense feeling), narrative (tells a story for some larger thematic reason) or didactic (has a purpose to teach some kind of lesson or make a point about something that is very important to you; something in society or at school or in the culture that needs to be changed or needs to be noticed, for example).

5. Maximum time length: 2 minutes 37 seconds; (please do not be too far beneath the time limit either)

6. Music, props, and costumes are allowed.

7. You do not have to memorize it, but you may NOT read it

8. Expectation: that you write the poem by yourself and that you bring the piece to life in front of your classmates so that everyone feels spoken to and everyone can hear and understand what you are saying very clearly and feels moved in some way by your piece (it may be humorous or serious).

Suggestions for Rehearsing the Slam:

1.Make sure the slam poem is well-organized and has all the poetic elements required above;

2. Time it on a few different takes.

3. Think about your body language (Feel free to have others watch you and make suggestions)

4. What will your hands do?

5.What will your body position be?

6. Think about how you will modulate your voice to enhance your poem and not overdo it.

7. What else will you use to enhance your performance?

8.You can't practice too much.

Slam will be graded using the following Criteria:

1. The poem itself: following the instructions regarding rhythm and figures of speech and word choice, degree of creativity/originality of topic, illustrations/examples and execution of poem.

2.PERFORMANCE:Clarity of articulation, body language, eye contact with audience.

Can everyone hear your performance? Adherence to time limit. Penalty for severe under-time.

How did audience react to your work? Did you use voice well? Did you create an aura or a mood in the classroom and sustain it? Was it appropriate to the poem?

Don't forget to bring a typed copy of your slam poem with you.

Synaesthesia! Please read instructions below:

Compose a couple (2) of cool images about rainfall or anything connected to rain using synaesthesia. After each example, state the two senses you mixed, and show whereyou used them (briefly please). Thank you!

Post is due by 7:30 Monday evening.

Due Monday at 7:00 p.m.

Share some images that appeal to the five senses and at least one simile or metaphor that you wrote as a result of looking closely at one of the photographs from the Graduating Seniors' Photography Show in Higgins Annex. List your images first, then please tell us the title of the photograph and the name of the photographer these images come from.

Finally, please explain the ways in which one art form can inspire another art form?

What is the relationship between looking closely at things and being inventive (i.e.coming up with original and defamiliarizing ways of saying things)?

Explain the difference between what your assignment asked you to do and copying or stealing another person's images please?

I look forward to reading your posts. For full credit you must address all that I asked.

Hyperbole means gross exaggeration

When a person exaggerates a lot, we say a person is using hyperbole. For example, if I tell you that I ate a TON for lunch, that is a cliche form of hyperbole since you've heard it a million times and it's an exaggeration (though I did eat an individual gluten-free pizza and an organic ice cream bar and I am very over-full right now). It might feel like I ate a ton, but I certainly did not really do so! Hyperbole in this case does not do any damage to anyone; my using this sort of language is fine as long as I don't use it all the time; if I do, it will lose its effect and impact. However, some kinds of hyperbole or exaggeration can do damage to people. For example, when people associate certain physical or personality traits to a particular group of people, such as long noses to Jewish people or laziness to green people, prejudice can begin. Then, hyperbole can be a figure of speech that is dangerous and damaging. Please invent two examples of hyperbole. Make one be the beginning of a new form of prejudice that does not yet exist. Do not make the prejudice against a group of people but against something that you think is damaging such as excessive sugar or excess playing of games on the computer. Thanks.

De-familiarization & Hyperbole

Select a verbal image of your choice and follow these instructions:

Take an image that is cliche, that we've heard repeatedly or that is used commonly since our language is full of dead metaphors that we don't even notice anymore, and revise the image to make it new, full of wonder, brimming over with energy, and popping with zest! Here is a visual image of the Last Supper that does just what I am asking. It is by the artist Ron English:

You will be defamiliarizing something overused or common in language. Write down the common phrase, and then write your refreshed zinging version. Please be sure to use concrete language that appeals to the five senses. Thank you.

POST IS DUE NO LATER THAN 7:00 p.m. MONDAY.