CI 5410 - A Throwback to Poetry; Exploring Tone Through Performance

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GENERAL INTRODUCTION
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While browsing the interwebs to help me brainstorm ideas for this week’s assignment, I came across the following page utilized by Susan Somers-Willet (a writing instructor at the University of Texas - Austin) to help facilitate her poetry and performance class. In addition to publishing assignment ideas specifically related to performance poetry, Somers-Willet has crafted assignments applicable to many other poetic genres / styles.

http://www.susansw.com/318performance/assignments.htm

For this week’s assignment, I would like to appropriate (and of course modify) Somers-Willet’s “Performance Poem #1” assignment which you can find about 2/3 of the way down the page:

“Performance poem #1”

For your first performance assignment, you will perform a poem by someone else. The poem you select should be one by which you think both you and your audience could benefit. Your performance should last at least 1.5 minutes long and should be memorized (although you may have a partner on book during your performance). For some tips on memorization, read "Memorizing a Poem" in SLAM pp. 50-55. For this assignment, think of the poem as a script for performance.

You will be graded on (in order of importance):

• Your performance and interpretation of the poem. You can fulfill this by simply addressing the question, "What separates my performance from a mere recital of the poem?"

• Your use of performative aspects that don't involve props, costumes, or other "outside" assistance--such as voice, tone, sound, rhythm, use of space, and gesture (you will get the chance to use props or costumes in your other performances). The key here is to strive to engage the audience in your understanding and experience of the poem.

• The effort you have put into understanding and interpreting the poem's performative aspects. Your audience can easily tell when you've put in the time and effort to not only memorize the poem, but to understand what the poem means to you and sharing that with an audience.
Now that you have the basic foundations of this performance-based assignment…

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MY SPECIFIC MODIFICATIONS
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Materials: Copies of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Song’s of Experience.
Time span: About 2-3 class periods.

Although I am fairly confident that an upper-class, college student could successfully engage Sommers-Willet's extremely open task (after all, the course is a 3XXX level English course), I highly doubt that a middle and / or high school student could independently negotiate the

-wide open selection of ANY poem to perform
-isolation of intended meanings / purposes to guide their performance
-performance of the poem in a way that clearly and effectively communicates an intended interpretation / meaning to their audience.

The following modifications are designed to incorporate necessary scaffolding by re-framing the activity around the communication / consideration of tone across William Blake’s Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence. Per usual, further modify this activity to YOUR unique learning context.

1.) Begin by exploring the specific differences between performing a poem and reciting a poem. To do so, the following question set may be useful:

-What sort of meanings can you communicate when you recite a poem? Perform a poem?
-Are there meanings that a performance can communicate that a recital may not? How so?
-How would you characterize a recital? A performance? What specific features might you notice?
-What are the potential effects of a recital on the listener? What are the potential effects of a performance on the listener?

Further probing questions?

-How might you talk when reciting / perform a poem?
-How might you move when reciting / perform a poem?

In addition to the discussion you and your class generate, a simple YouTube search will yield further multi-modal examples of performances and recitals.

Whatever is generated, conclude on the following core concepts:

*People perform poems to amplify and / or create meanings that the text alone may not necessarily be able to communicate.

*Tone can be greatly amplified / created / emphasized / revealed when a poem is performed vs. simply recited.

2.) If your class is not familiar with the concept of tone, provide them with the necessary background contexts re definitions, uses, and so on.

*More important to this activity, discuss how tone is created (in poetry AND every day life) via the complex interactions between:

a. ) the base meanings of specific words we chose

b. ) the additional meanings created when we VERBALLY communicate said words (e.g., the inflections we use, the intensity or lack thereof in our voices, and so on)

c.) the additional meanings created when we NON-VERBALLY communicate said words (e.g. the way we stand, move, our facial expressions, and so on)

d.) the surrounding social, cultural, political, and so on contexts we are located while communicating.

Again, in addition to the discussion that you and your class create, a simple YouTube search will yield TONS of rich examples to further explore the creation / communication of tone.

3.) Distribute examples of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence to ½ the class, and Songs of Experience to ½ the class.

NOTE: the idea here is that these poems have DRAMATICALLY different tones which can be further amplified / revealed via the specific decisions students make while performing them.

4.) As a class, in groups, and or individually, have students read their poem and identify a.) WHAT specific tone it creates and b.) HOW, specifically, the text alone creates this tone.

5.) Once students have identified both the specific tone, as well as how the text contributes to the establishment of this tone, have them explore the following question set:

-How can I amplify / emphasize / reinforce / reveal the tone of this poem?
-What specific word choices / phrases contribute to the tone I want to amplify?
-How, specifically, might I perform them? What sort of energy, or lack their of, might I use? What sort of inflections might I use in my voice?
-How will I act / look / move when I perform? Will I look angry? Sad? Happy? Depressed?

6.) In class and as homework, have students further consider the decisions they will make and rehearse.

7.) In class the next day, have students perform their poems, potentially switching back and forth between examples from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

NOTE: again, the idea here is to clearly show your students via co-performance the nuanced ways in which specific performance decisions can greatly influence diverse tones that are communicated to audiences.

8.) As a sort of post analysis / reflection activity, have students write a short paragraph responding to the following questions:

a.) What SPECIFIC decisions did I make during the performance of my poem that were successful / communicated my intended meaning / purpose / tone?

b.) Why SPECIFICALLY do I think this / how SPECIFICALLY could I tell?

c.) If I were to perform this poem again I would change the way I _______ because _______.

d.) If I were to perform this poem again I would note change the way I _______ because _______.