Year 6 Slam Poetry Incursion

Having attended the slam poetry incursion conducted by Phillip Wilcox we learned various techniques to enhance the quality of our poems and presentation. Some of these techniques include connection to audience, audience inclusion and a famous way of looking at the different perspectives of a poem called the ‘movie’ technique.

Connection to audience is a technique that poets use to relate to the audience. This is one of the most important skills in poetry mainly because if you use this then the audience will be inclined to listen to your work. Connection to the audience creates an understanding between the poet and the audience so they can take the topic that you feel passionate about and make a difference themselves. Throughout the session Phillip told us events that would interest us and leave wanting to hear more about it. An example of this is when he narrated to us his account with a shark, it left us wanting to hear more about what happened next. Connection to the audience leaves the spectators eager to hear more from you.

Audience inclusion is a technique where the poet asks the audience to get physically involved. This grabs their attention which ensures their participation and that they are listening to what the poet is saying. During our incursion Phillip Wilcox asked us to get involved in one of his poems by giving us certain actions to do when he gave us different hand signals. We created the sound of thunder, lightning and rain. Not only did it enhance the poem's quality but it got us listening attentively to what he was saying.

The ‘movie’ technique is used to understand the different perspectives that people may understand a poem from. This teaches us how different people’s experiences, cultures and beliefs impact their views on various topics. To understand this we did an activity where we had to listen to one of Philip Wilcox’s poems and explain what we understood from different parts of the poem. Our answers varied drastically, it shows the diverse range of personalities we have here at Artarmon Public School.

When Phillip Wilcox came to our school we were all a bit curious as to what he was going to teach us. However, having finished the session we all look at him in awe now as our slam poetry mentor.

By Pujya and Charlotte (6MB)