Co-sponsored by the Oakland Writing Project and the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association (MIFA)
The growing popularity of slam poetry has revived interest in oral performance as a strategy for engaging kids in language and literature. The Oral Literacy Workshop is an opportunity for teachers to learn about ways to use oral performance to energize their teaching of more traditional forms of literature.
The workshop will be held in conjunction with the MIFA Original Interpretation tournament. Workshop participants will be invited to sample some of the potential of oral literary performance by attending tournament sessions, in which contestants present compositions of their own creation.
The workshop features concurrent sessions on the written and oral dimensions of literature. A faculty workshop will provide teachers with practical methods for teaching composition and performance skills to students. Faculty who have contestants in the tournament will discuss the creative process in relation to writing and presentation. Literature discussions may cover poetry, prose, storytelling, and attention will be given to the performance of literature written by others.
The workshop will provide an opportunity for teachers to learn from successful faculty and contestants with extensive experience in the composition and presentation of literature.