Spoken Words

A spoken-word project with Kelmscott School
Led by Apples & Snakes

Funded by Booktrust for ‘Writing Together’

Artists: Malika Booker, Francesca Beard, Roger Robinson, Aoife Mannix, Nii Parkes and Breis
Co-ordinating Organisation: Apples & Snakes
School: Kelmscott School, Walthamstow
Co-ordinating teacher: Lucy Dalton

Apples & Snakes is England’s leading organisation for performance poetry and exists to stretch the boundaries of poetry in education & performance.  We aim to give voice to challenging, diverse and dynamic poets and encourage the appreciation of poetry by all. We have extensive experience of running projects in schools, prisons and in informal settings and work regularly with over 50 spoken word artists.

Working with Kelmscott School as part of the ‘Writing Together’ initiative, Apples and Snakes provided six spoken word artists to engage with pupils through both workshops and performance. The aim of the residency was to inspire and encourage Year 10 pupils to write creatively, equipping them with the skills and confidence to extend their current writing practise and to experience their writing’s dramatic potential. The dual focus on the creative process of writing and its realisation in performance aimed to blur the boundaries between page and stage, challenging pupils’ preconceptions of creative writing and unlocking their creative and imaginative potential.

Through meeting and email correspondence with the school contact and English teacher, Lucy Dalton, it was decided that each of the performance poets would work with an English set from one half of the year group, focusing on the theme of “Growing Up”.

Malika worked intensively with one mixed-ability set for 4 workshops of 2 hours, culminating in a student performance to the rest of the year. Malika’s workshops were spread over the course of two weeks, allowing Lucy to continue the work in between sessions and to thread the pupils’ enthusiasm back into the course of her teaching.

Roger, Francesca, Nii and Aoife each worked with a mixed-ability English set for 2 workshops of 2 hours, with Nii and Aoife facilitating one workshop each for their allocated set.

The other half of the year group were due to have a taster of performance poetry through a performance by Breis, Francesca, Roger and Nii, followed by a workshop with one of the artists. Due to a last-minute timetabling problem, however, the workshop element was cancelled. Nevertheless, the performance provided the pupils with an opportunity to be entertained and inspired by the artists’ work and to gain a fresh perspective on the possibilities of their writing.

The artists’ performance was one of the most well-received areas of the project and potentially something that Apples and Snakes are keen to develop. The format worked very well and the artists received a positive response from both teachers and pupils, prompting one teacher to remark that the pupils’ enjoyment was most apparent by their sustained concentration throughout. She was surprised by one pupil in particular who usually finds sitting still for prolonged periods extremely difficult yet who was enraptured throughout the performance. It was unfortunate that due to timetabling difficulties only the half of the year group not working with the poets experienced the performance. Nevertheless, all of the poets gave their groups a taster of their own work at the start of the workshops that began the following day, sparking the pupils’ imaginations and gaining their respect.

The relationship between the artists and the pupils was one of the most positive aspects of the project, contributing to its overall success both in terms of opening the pupils up to the dramatic potential of writing and its realisation in the work that they actually produced. One of the reoccurring comments on the feedback questionnaires was that the pupils loved the way the artists ‘spoke to us’. For example, in Malika’s workshops she introduced each new exercise as a tool used by writers, a trick-of-the-trade, so that a writer-to-writer rather than teacher-to-pupil dynamic was established from the outset. By talking to the pupils as writers, the artists created a safe and creative environment that the pupils were able to open up in whilst minimising usual classroom behavioural difficulties. This change of dynamic was especially effective in bringing the class together regardless of ability, as both pupils and teachers commented on how ‘everyone worked together’ and contributed.

The informal or, as one pupil put it, ‘relaxed and loose’ atmosphere of the workshops took writing out of the confines of school and assessment, helping the pupils to see writing as something that they could do. This boost of confidence was reflected in the pupils’ feedback, with 91% agreeing that the workshops had made them more confident in their ability to write in a way that would interest others. Many pupils commented that the sharing of their work with their peers made them ‘feel more confident’, especially those in Malika’s group who showcased their work to the rest of the year-group at a final performance.

The pupils’ performance itself was a very positive experience for all involved; whilst Malika’s class were initially reluctant to share their work even with each other, by the end of the week they were excited and ready to perform. Their increased confidence is made clear by the difference between the feedback data gathered at the start of Malika’s residency and at the end. Initially, 44% of pupils strongly agreed that working with Malika had increased their confidence yet after the performance, this had risen to 76%.  One pupil in particular surprised both herself and Lucy when she managed to deliver her monologue with clarity and confidence despite her usual shyness. The rest of the year’s enthusiasm towards their peers’ performance also surprised Lucy-especially those audience members who were heard to be saying how they wished they could have performed too!

The performance was especially important for Malika’s group as it made the achievements of their writing all the more tangible; working intensively with Malika ensured that every pupil had produced either a poem or a monologue that they could be proud of. By the end of the project, 100% of pupils in Malika’s class were surprised by the quality of their work and 73% strongly considered creative writing as something that they could do- as opposed to 11% at the start. The feeling of achievement was reflected across the project with 94% of pupils and all four teachers agreeing that their time with an artist had improved the pupils’ writing. Whilst the other classes did not have the opportunity to produce a polished piece of writing, the workshops nevertheless offered pupils the opportunity to try out new writing styles and ideas, or as one pupil put it, to ‘reach new levels of creativity’.

The positive feedback from both the teachers and artists reflects the productive relationship that they shared throughout the residency. In line with the ‘Writing Together’ objective of establishing productive relationships between artists and teachers, the project was particularly successful in allowing both the space to reflect and build on their own expertise. In similarity to one artist’s comment that the project allowed her to ‘interrogate [her] practise’, all of the teachers reflected that working with the artist had taught them that their class could be trusted to work in new and experimental ways.

As with even the most successful projects, there were challenges. During the initial planning stages of the project it was often difficult to contact Lucy simply due to the constraints on teachers’ time that are a hurdle in any education project.

The shortage of teacher time also impeded the opportunity for further development of the artist/teacher relationship; whilst Apples and Snakes were keen to organise an INSET to ensure that the creativity in the classroom established by the artist continued, it was unable to take place due to other pressures and constraints on staff time. Whilst both Kelmscott School and Apples and Snakes are trying to overcome this challenge by arranging an INSET for later in the year, it would nevertheless have been of greater immediacy and relevance had it ran alongside the project.

Other pressures of the school day also took their toll on the project, such as the cancellation of the other half of the year’s workshops following the artists’ performance due to a timetabling error. Taking the pupils off timetable was key to the success of the project so when Lucy was unable to do so, the impact of the project was compromised. For example, timetabling constraints also meant that the half of the year working with the artists did not have the opportunity to see the artists’ performance. This would have been an ideal opportunity for all of the pupils to have experienced the excitement of spoken word whilst providing a model for the “gig” that Malika’s group staged at the end of the project.

Whilst the pupils that did see the artists’ and their peers’ performances responded with enthusiasm and enjoyment, this could have been enhanced by setting-up the performance space as a real spoken word gig. The lack of raked seating and lighting in the hall meant that whilst the pupils enjoyed the performances themselves, they didn’t have the opportunity to “escape” into the event and, as performers, to experience the transformative power of the stage. Nevertheless, the overwhelmingly positive response to the artists’ performance in particular is something that Apples and Snakes are very keen to build on, with the hope of developing the format into an independent project to be realised at some point in the future.  

Overall, the project was successful against its aims: the creativity of staff and pupils was stretched in a way that fulfilled national curriculum criteria whilst offering new ways of realising pupils’ imaginative potential. Both staff and pupils agreed that the pupils’ writing and confidence had improved, making the project a worthwhile and inspirational experience for all involved. To help the school build on the success of the project, Apples and Snakes are currently in the process of putting together a teachers’ resource pack of the workshop plans of the artists, extracts from both the artists’ and pupils’ work and a DVD of the artists’ and pupils’ performances. We are also compiling a booklet of the pupils’ work as a reminder of their achievements to accompany the DVD that every pupil will take home and are looking forward to accompanying Lucy and three pupils to showcase their work at the upcoming ‘Writing Together’ conference in June.

Appendix 1 Examples of pupils’ poems and monologues

Special Night

I remember that special night                                 
I spent with the person I loved most
I remember watching the stars
Glowing down to us shining above us
I remember, I remember, remember

As we lay on the ground
Silence broke down with the birds singing
The night was as beautiful as a bride
The moon was nice and round
As it guided us through the darkness.

As the night went on he…….
He held me so tight I didn’t want to let go
At that moment we both knew that was
Our last night we spent together.
The sadness broke down and I started to cry.

Even though that was our last night
We both knew we loved each other.
My tears came down like rain
Then we said goodbye. Goodbye felt like dying
I remember, remember, our special night.

Adelaide James

This didn’t ac’chly happen to me

You know what, I saw some guys at the corner of my eye at the back of the bus. I could hear them whispering, and I had a feeling they were staring at me. I thought to myself, arrrr man I bess put my phone in my sock. Den I came to my stop, got off the bus and I heard them walking down the steps, so I picked up the pace. I walked like five meters and I saw like 12 of their reflections in the shop window and I tried not to look back, one of the boys shouted “oiii!” I froze they were coming closer. I wasn’t sure to sprint or jus jam, buuuut I was too late to run they caught up with me. Den one of them go “so where you from?!” And I went “Hackney man”, one of the bois go “don’t Hackney man me do you want a slap?” I didn’t reply another boy goes “sooo why are you down ere, and Im going to check one of my bedrins skeen skeen” the tall one said “walk one but next tim don’t get rude lil man” as I started walking my legs felt like jelly I was soo scared but on the other hand I felt glad that I got let off.

Ackeem Howell

Life

I remember where we sat
together, where everyone sat
together, the white sofa
stealing you away, putting
you into a deep sleep

The spongy carpet between your toes
tickling your feet
family altogether, laughter
ringing in the air
joy and vibrancy seeping
through the room, intoxicating
until everyone has been infected

The sun gleams through the windows,
creating, an air of happiness
making a family a family

The TV blaring, young children
all around, with their hearts full of content, Imagine,
imagine, all of this missing,
what would life be like?
what would we do?

The silence
echoing on the walls, the clouds
dark grey, deep in sorrow
totally abandoned
like a stray dog, looking
for its owner

Is this what life would be like?
without the place where we sat
together, where everyone sat
together, a place of brightness
nothing left untouched, a room
which makes a family
a family.

Farhaan Lorgat

Appendix 2 Pupil Feedback

> What did you like best about the workshop?

The group discussions with the artists
Everyone sharing
We could all be relaxed and everyone felt a part of the lesson
The way to create a poem through words
What I liked best was how to write a poem and poetry
I liked the workshop because it improved my writing skills
The artist’s ideas were really helpful
Working with the teacher as a class
The different way of teaching
The free-writing helped me find new ways of coming up with ideas
How [the artist] talked to us
I liked writing our own poems and the free write helped me a lot
The quality of work produced
I liked writing and performing my monologue
It improved my English strongly
The performance at the end
The performance we were made to do
Malika’s way of getting through to us

> Is there anything that you didn’t like? Why?

Performing- its too nerve-wracking

No I liked everything

> What do you like about the work you’ve produced?

I loved it- it made me confident

I am really proud and happy
The descriptions
I liked the way I performed my monologue
The audience liked it and so did I
I can read it confidently
I think it was wicked
The quality
The writing of my work
I helped my confidence
I like my poem very much
It’s better than I thought it’d be
It was of a high quality
Im more confident infront of others
I am more confident now
My poems and that I do have a great ability to work
I’ve reached new levels of creativity
It’s funny, easy and loose
My work has improved
It was creative and I am now confident
It helps you to think

I think the work I’ve produced was better than what I could do before we did this workshop.

Appendix 3 Teacher Feedback

The workshops linked readily and fruitfully to the National Curriculum

> What were the main strengths of the workshops?

Different approach
Lively delivery- able to engage students and keep on task
Really encouraged kids that are normally quiet to read aloud and increased their confidence in writing.
Workshops gave the pupils the opportunities to write outside confines of coursework/exams
Quiet students were engaged, work was produced by all students and all were proud of it.
Structuring the process of writing- especially free write and mapping, making the students more comfortable with the process

> Were there any weaknesses? If so, how could these be remedied?

Pupils find it difficult to “come out of their shells” due to peer pressure etc. More work on pushing group barriers back!

> Have any particular student/s surprised you in the workshops? If so, in what ways?

Both less able and most able students have excelled in their writing
A number of the boys who produced strong, coherent monologues- everyone produced something that made sense and could be read out.
Yes- one in particular. Really joined in orally-engaged- contributed.
One pupil wrote lots without complaint and another was a surprisingly good leader.

> How do you intend to build on the work/skills achieved in the workshops?

To consider the process of writing- not just the end product
I’m a TST so I intend to incorporate some of the methods in my teaching generally
Remind students of the skills needed in planning, plotting ideas, keep readers interest, putting things in context

> List 3 things that you have learnt/gained from the workshops

Don’t rush, be patient, push the students- they can do it
Different approaches to writing- take the pressure off the pupils
Encouraging pupils to draw on their own issues
Giving pupils time to experiment with ways of writing
This class can be trusted to work in ‘experimental ways’
Some non-writers can be persuaded to write without much of a prompt
There are still issues about peer pressure restraining people’s confidence

> Any further comments or suggestions….
Completely worthwhile and worthy - very inspiring.