A Slam Poem Clean Enough for the Fifth Grade Classroom

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April is National Poetry Month! I'm fairly candid with my students. I tell them that I usually think that I don't really care for poetry, until I read a really good one and it reminds me how powerful and how enjoyable poetry can be. I really don't enjoy poetry, until there's an emotion overpowering all my other emotions in a distracting way, and then I realize I need to write about it to get back to normal. Most of the time those feelings spill onto the page as poetry, since poetry is a shortcut to feelings (both emotional and physical).

Because it is National Poetry Month, I've been giving students poetry writing prompts almost every school day in April. When I noticed that tension was growing in a few pockets of student relationships, I figured it might be time for a slam poem. Let students get their feelings out of their systems, before they try to solve problems with playground fights.

I scoured YouTube far and wide, looking for slam poems, dis tracks, rap battles, anything clean enough to show in a fifth grade classroom. There was no shortage of great examples, but then there would be one bad word, or one allusion to mature themes, or the poet would be wearing something that went against school dress policy. So after about an hour or so of a fruitless search, I finally accepted that if I wanted an example clean enough for my classroom, I would have to write it.

I told students that a slam poem can be about anything or anyone who upsets you. Just get mad, start writing, and look for rhymes. I told them we would not be sharing our slam poems. In fact, when we were done, students were to fold the page in half in their writer's notebook and write "Warning: Toxic" on the visible side. I told them anger can be a useful emotion, but it's not one that we want to sit in all the time or revisit over and over again. Better out than in, but not forgotten entirely because we still want to learn from it.

I chose state testing because it seemed uncontroversial to be annoyed by state testing. Everyone groans over state testing. Even though, as a teacher, I really want to see that data. One of my goals every year is to guide students to mastery in the standards that the state expects them to master. One data point that gives me a vague idea of whether that happened is their state test score. Keep in mind, Oklahoma teachers get this information well after the next school year has started. And there's no stopping a student who doesn't want to take the test, and just clicks through to finish in about 60 seconds, not reading questions or answers. Even though I know I shouldn't take the results of this test too seriously, every year I find myself counting on it as a way to get feedback from students, even if the process is a little flawed.

Anyway, here's my slam poem about state testing.

Getting Testy

by Jill Macchiaverna

Welcome to Day 155.

State tests are around the corner.

This is your life.

Don’t start to mourn or

cry asking why? why? WHY?!

State tests are coming

and this is your life.

If I sound a bit dismissive

please forgive me.

When the teacher gets a missive

from the state

it’s called a mandate.

Mandate is the noun.

Mandatory is the adjective.

So all you’ve written down

all the notes I had to give

were to prepare you for this test

so you could do your best.

And if that were the sum

of my position as teacher,

if caring about your lives

was not one of my features

I might be able to weather

the testing season a little better.

I wouldn’t care about covering the walls

hiding every number and letter.

I wouldn’t have put anything up.

If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t get hurt

by the unending calls for

improving education

from people with walls in their halls

and laws in their hands

and books in their dust

and their thousands of grands

that they send to the homes

of people who don’t need it,

who never have known

what it meant to be broke

or to be right

or to be quiet

or to be just

or to serve

or to love someone just for existing and

knowing they will inherit the Earth.

Testing season

would not be a reason

to frown so much,

to be so irritated.

My hostility

could be much abated

if we had better ways to measure

the important things.

Not wealth and grades, the treasure

is watching a student

become suddenly fluent

in something they didn’t know before.

The treasure is opening a door

for young minds 

that climb like vines

on rhymes in science.

The treasure is widening the floor

of the stage for young troubadours

performing in handwritten plays

that blow the audience away.

Kids wrote that? they say.

Yeah. My kids.

There’s no test for that.

You can’t measure self expression.

What do you think, chat?

Does all our screentime

add to your anxiety and depression?

When you test on a screen

you eliminate paper and pencil.

You cut the connection

from your brain and the natural extension

to your hand. Holding a thought

for just a millisecond longer

gives you just enough time to

make a second thought stronger.

Now you have multiple choices.

Right or wrong or

an ordered list,

clutch your mouse in your fist

and click the right answer.

How would you measure a dancer?

How would you measure a good friend?

How would you measure someone

who can bend but not break,

who can get mad

and then self-regulate?

Aren’t those skills important?

Don’t start to mourn or

cry asking why? why? WHY?!

State tests are coming

and this is our life.

Maybe that makes you angry.

Maybe that makes you ill.

Maybe your teachers are cranky.

Maybe you’ve had your fill.

But testing is happening,

whether we like it or not.

And you are ready for testing,

even if you haven’t listened a lot.

Maybe your ears were off

but now your mouth is an explosion

of rancid words and accusation.

You’re allowed more than one emotion.

But take all your rage,

take all your insecurity,

and put it on the page,

so you can get over it,

and call it a day.