Before you begin the Speak Up, Write Now curriculum, read through this guide for necessary insight, tips, and tricks to make this a great season of poetry!

Coach Lesson Slides

To make it as easy as possible for you as Coaches to lead lessons from the curriculum, we have created Coach Lesson Slides that provide an outline and talking points for each lesson. 

The links below will create a copy of each Coach Lesson Slide so you can customize it for your team. You must sign into a gmail account.

Creating Safe Spaces

• Week 1, Workshop 1: One Community, One Purpose

• Week 1, Workshop 2: What It’s Like to Be Me...For Those Who Aren’t 

Poetry: A Written Art 

Content-Based Lessons

• • Week 2, Workshop 1: Making Poetic Choices 

  • Week 2, Workshop 2: Tougher Than Tongue Twisters

  • Week 3, Workshop 1: Creative Comparisons

  • Week 3, Workshop 2: Painting a Verbal Picture

  • Week 4, Workshop 1: Through a Different Lens

  • Week 4, Workshop 2: Applying Hip Hop Philosophy

Poetry Buffet Lessons 

• • Week 5, Workshop 1: Poetry as Advocacy 

  • Week 5, Workshop 2: Poetry as Activism

  • Week 6, Workshop 1: Envisioning Utopia

  • Week 6, Workshop 2: Verbal Battles

Spoken Word: Strategies, Performance and Preparation 

• • Week 7, Workshop 1: Projecting Your Message

  • Week 7, Workshop 2: Communicating Via Body Language

  • Week 8, Workshop 1: Staring Fear in the Face

  • Week 8, Workshop 2: Getting “Off Book”

  • Week 9, Workshop 1: Honing Your Stage Presence

  • Week 9, Workshop 2: Working the Mic!

Poetry SLAM! And Poetry Portfolio Development

• • Week 10, Workshop 1: SLAM Prep! Advise, Revise, Perfect, Practice 

  • Week 10, Workshop 2: SLAM Prep! Advise, Revise, Perfect, Practice 

  • Week 11, Workshop 1: SLAM Prep! Advise, Revise, Perfect, Practice 

  • Week 11, Workshop 2: SLAM Prep! Advise, Revise, Perfect, Practice 

  • Week 12, Workshop 1: SLAM Performances 

  • Week 12, Workshop 2: SLAM Prep! Advise, Revise, Perfect, Practice 

Appendices 

• • Closing Circle Structures 

Poetry Slam Coach Guide