Spoken Word Poetry with Multilingual Youth from Refugee Backgrounds

Abstract

This article reports insights from a spoken word poetry workshop conducted with youth from refugee backgrounds and their teachers at a large suburban secondary school. The broad aim of engaging spoken word poetry in the educational context was to encourage and listen to student voice and creative self‐expression, and to explore opportunities within the class to speak to sociopolitical issues and injustices relevant to students’ lives and experiences. The article illustrates how the workshop created situated, embodied teaching and learning activities to familiarize students with the spoken word genre and invite students to imagine spoken word as part of their expanding repertoire. These experiences engaged with students’ linguistic, cultural, and other semiotic resources, valorizing translanguaging as a critical practice for youth in the process of resettlement and teachers supporting their social and educational integration. The article concludes with implications for teachers interested in incorporating spoken word in the classroom.

Online translanguaging and multiliteracies strategies to support K‐12 multilingual learners: Identity texts, linguistic landscapes, and photovoice

“…As an intentional approach to teaching in multilingual classrooms, translanguaging is used to deconstruct social stereotypes, promote inclusion of learners from marginalized social backgrounds, and deepen understanding of cultural diversity (Lau & Van Viegen, 2020; Seltzer & García, 2020). The social, cognitive, linguistic, and affective benefits for MLs when educators value their diverse language practices, which are not often supported by traditional school‐based language use and pedagogy, are well reported in the empirical literature (e.g., Burton & Van Viegen, 2021; Duarte, 2019; Vogel et al, 2019). Unlike the centrality of multimodalities in multiliteracies theory discussed below, translanguaging has only recently expanded its focus on language to encompass nonlinguistic modes of communication, including the role of embodied repertoires like gestures and movement in social interactions (e.g., Hua et al, 2019).…”

“When People Don't Know Me, They Think…”: Fostering a Multimodal Translanguaging Space that Leverages Students' Voices

“…Other scholars have documented the power of multimodal text in fostering a space for students to reflect on their lived experiences and to support each other in the creation of counter narratives that speak to stereotypes that they face (Burton & Van Viegen, 2021; Flores, 2021). In a review of research focused on emergent bilinguals and digital multimodal composition, Smith et al (2021) documented how digital multimodal composing can support emergent bilingual identity expression and foster a classroom space that challenges language ideologies.…”