I decided that a poetry coffee house would be an excellent event to serve as the culminated effort of our poetry unit. I planned to emulate a commercial coffee house ambiance, deciding that the school library would be the best venue to facilitate this. The plan was to have my students perform their original poetry, while I accompanied them with my double bass. The audience would be comprised of other classes from throughout the school and any parents who wished to attend. The students were excited at the prospect of this event.

My class and I spent several lessons planning the event so it would run smoothly. The students each took on specific jobs. I had students planning the order of performers, booking audiences, putting up posters advertising the event around the school, planning the layout of the room, organizing and creating decorations, preparing audio/visual recording equipment and writing M.C. scripts. When the students visited classes throughout the school to talk about the event, several students from other classes asked if they could also share their original poetry. These students were added to the performers list. My sponsor teacher and I arranged to have the Laughing Bean coffee shop sponsor the event, supplying us with hot chocolate for the students and coffee for the adults.

The day proceeding the event, my class spent a few hours practicing their performance poetry in the format that the coffee house would be run. The audiences would be rotating every forty minutes over the course of the two hour event. The students in my class would each have the opportunity to perform once for each audience, with students from other classes booked in sporadically throughout the event. My class would remain in order, lined up around the perimeter of the room so there would not be a delay between performers. We practiced this rotational performance in the classroom several times before the actual event.

The final event was a success. The students were thoroughly prepared and performed their original compositions with enthusiasm and confidence. They were all proud of the work they had put into planning and executing the coffee house and they enjoyed not only performing their own poetry, but listening to the original compositions of others. Just as ancient bards sang their tales to the captive audiences of aristocratic houses, so did my students perform their poetry for their peers.

The following video highlights the practice and performance of the poetry coffee house:

The following is a recording of the students' original compositions:

1. Coffee House Introduction

2. Helen, Jason H and Andy

3. Henry and Matthew

4. Andrew and Christian

5. Blair and Calvin

6. Kevin, Candice and Angel

7. Julia and Holly

8. Sharice and Jodie

9. Jimmy and Wendy

10. Michelle and Kristine

11. Sacha, Jason L and Klassen

12. Vincent and Frida

13. Multilingual Poem and Outro