Promoting Literacy and Critical Writing Skills Through Poetry
Title: Promoting Literacy and Critical Writing Skills Through Poetry
Author: Korina Jocson
Date: September 2005
For many youth, including those above, poetry is a much-valued form of expression. Over the last decade, the popularity of hip hop culture and the (re)emergence of spoken word poetry has resulted in a proliferation of national and local youth poetry “slams,” as well as television programs such as Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam. In major cities across the United States, poetry-writing workshops have become available inside schools and have become increasingly embedded in English Language Arts curricula. One example is a program based on the late June Jordan’s Poetry for the People (P4P) at the University of California, Berkeley. P4P is a university writing program in partnership with a nearby high school in the East Bay Area. Similar to other arts and outreach programs, it is currently threatened by state budget cuts.
