At once he went among the suitors - he,

a mortal like a god. The flawless bard

was chanting still; the suitors sat in silent

astonishment. He sang of the Achans:

their sad return from Troy, the penalty

Athena made them pay. Penelope,

within her rooms above, hung on his words;

she grasped the wondrous sense of every verse.

-The Odyssey, Book I¹

The tradition of oral literacy dates back to earliest human attempts at creative expression. Today, oral literacy has been somewhat devalued in our schools. For the most part, literacy is equated with "the written word;" the more proficient one is at reading and writing, the more "literate" he or she is. Human history reveals, however, that there is more to literacy than simply written text; to be truly literate one must understand the idea of language. Language is not easily defined; it has a written component, but it is also expressed through vocalizations, through words. Language can also be wordless; a musical phrase from the saxophone of John Coltrane can impart the same level of meaning and understanding to the listener as a passage of Shakespeare. Language cannot be "learned" solely through traditional academics; students must live and experience language, they must utilize language in performance.

 

There are several reasons why I chose to teach oral poetics in the classroom.? First, it corresponds with several of the Prescribed Learning Outcomes for the B.C. Language Arts curriculum:

It is expected that students will:²

-Demonstrate their knowledge of the conventions of public speaking and informal oral presentations.

-Demonstrate pride and satisfaction in using language to create and express their thoughts, ideas, and feelings through a variety of oral, written, and electronic forms.

-Create a variety of personal and informational communications, including fiction and non-fiction; written summaries, instructions, and reports; oral and visual presentations; oral and written opinions; poems; or lyrics.

-Create a variety of written and oral communications to record their views, opinions, values, and beliefs.

Beyond the P.L.O.'s, I believe that developing effective oral communication skills is fundamental to personal success not only in school, but also in the business world. Finally, I wanted my students to have the opportunity to explore the connection between their own oral poetics and the tradition of oral poetry that has persisted in many cultures throughout history. I carefully considered this rationale when I designed this unit on oral poetry.

The title of this project, The Singer Renews the Tale: The Development of Oral Poetry in the Classroom, is an homage to scholars Milman Parry and Albert Bates Lord. Lord conducted groundbreaking research into the nature of oral tradition and oral formulaic poetry, and recorded his findings in his works The Singer of Tales and the posthumous The Singer Resumes the Tale. The word "renews" was chosen for the title of my own project after careful consideration. I briefly considered using the term "reforms;" after all, in this project my students have been drawing on the oral poetic traditions of the past to help develop their own literacy skills. "Reform," however, implies an attempt to recreate the past. Modern society has written language; this fact alone dramatically separates us from ancient cultures that did not write their languages. In our classrooms we can, however, "renew" oral literacy. We can integrate components of traditional oral literacy, such as the importance of "performance," to revive and modernize oral poetics. This is what I have worked towards achieving with my own class.

Sir Matthew Begbie Elementary is a designated ESL school in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As such, its students bring an array of linguistic and cultural diversity to the classroom. The following demonstration will illustrate the ways in which I explored oral poetics with MJ Moran's Grade 6/7 classroom (the class where I conducted my extended practicum as a student teacher); and on the other end of the Elementary school spectrum, with Sherran Pickering's Kindergarten/Grade 1 class. First, I will highlight the work my class did with their Kindergarten/Grade one buddies; as the students utilized the theme of "Apples" to explore the concept of performance poetry together. Next, I will examine the work I did with my class in our own unit on oral poetry. I will reflect on our "daily tradition;" the routine we observed at the beginning of each poetry class. I will discuss some of the key lessons of the oral poetics unit; such as the group composition and performance of a poem titled Cameras, and the students' experimentation with first language in their poetry. Finally, I will reflect on the event which served as the culmination of my oral poetry unit, our Poetry Coffee House. This analysis of the work I have done with my class and with our Kindergarten/Grade 1 buddies will illustrate the importance of the oral literacy modality and demonstrate one way oral poetics can be integrated into a larger literacies program in the classroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Homer (Trans. Allen Mandelbaum), The Odyssey of Homer, New York: Bantam Books, 1991, pg. 14

2. Language Arts K-7 I.R.P., http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/elak7/apa.htm#ciikl