Capture the attention of your audience right from the beginning. Share some of your funniest poems first. That's the best way to interest kids or adults. If you can make your audience laugh right in the beginning of your show, you will be holding their attention in the palm of your hands.
Never talk to kids like they are "little kids." Always treat kids like they are "Tall." In their own minds, they aren't little kids. They usually know lots of smaller kids. If you treat them like a smaller version of a regular person, they will respect what you have to say.
Don't turn your presentation into a sermon. Kids don't want to listen to didactic poetry. They want to laugh, smile, and have a good time. After school, you want them to run home to their parents' arms and say "We had this funny poet in school today! He was so funny!"
If you want your audience to laugh or think twice about your poetry, your endings have to be excellent like the punch line of a good joke or a perfectly selected unexpected ending-serious, but fitting.
Kids need to know that it's okay if the poems they write or hear don't rhyme. Tell them that "It's no crime if poems don't rhyme." In other words, it's okay if a poem rhymes or not. Just let the refreshing breeze of your poetry spill over your audience.
In your poetry show, don't tell in your poems. I know that you have probably read or heard that many times before, but it's worth repeating. In number 5, I could have said "make your poetry interesting" but I didn't. Near the end I compared your poetry to a "refreshing breeze." Yes, showing is a better way to write and present poetry.
Let kids know that poetry can be humorous, serious or mysterious. In other words, poets have these three "tools" to grab the audience's attention in their poems. It all depends on what tool the poet thinks is best for the poem. And, of course, the poet can combine tools in a poem. Then give them a pungent example of a serious and a mysterious poem. Nonetheless, the real message for kids here is that poets are empowered by words when they write them and share them with an audience, and they empower the listeners by presenting their poems. It's a wonderful cycle that might help kids take off with words on their own.
Okay, this is bonus key "eight." When performing for kids, never let yourself get too nervous before you go out on stage or stand in front of them in the open cafeteria or gym. This tip is very important to remember: kids are very "forgiving" and they laugh easily. So if anything goes wrong with your props, your electronic equipment or the script that's inside your head to share, just go with the flow and adlib your way through any difficulty. It's perfectly okay if kids laugh at unplanned errors. They are laughing at the moment, not you. Kids understand mishaps. Sometimes their whole life seems like a mishap. Just take a deep breath and move along with your show.
Never talk to kids like they are "little kids." Always treat kids like they are "Tall." In their own minds, they aren't little kids. They usually know lots of smaller kids. If you treat them like a smaller version of a regular person, they will respect what you have to say.
Don't turn your presentation into a sermon. Kids don't want to listen to didactic poetry. They want to laugh, smile, and have a good time. After school, you want them to run home to their parents' arms and say "We had this funny poet in school today! He was so funny!"
If you want your audience to laugh or think twice about your poetry, your endings have to be excellent like the punch line of a good joke or a perfectly selected unexpected ending-serious, but fitting.
Kids need to know that it's okay if the poems they write or hear don't rhyme. Tell them that "It's no crime if poems don't rhyme." In other words, it's okay if a poem rhymes or not. Just let the refreshing breeze of your poetry spill over your audience.
In your poetry show, don't tell in your poems. I know that you have probably read or heard that many times before, but it's worth repeating. In number 5, I could have said "make your poetry interesting" but I didn't. Near the end I compared your poetry to a "refreshing breeze." Yes, showing is a better way to write and present poetry.
Let kids know that poetry can be humorous, serious or mysterious. In other words, poets have these three "tools" to grab the audience's attention in their poems. It all depends on what tool the poet thinks is best for the poem. And, of course, the poet can combine tools in a poem. Then give them a pungent example of a serious and a mysterious poem. Nonetheless, the real message for kids here is that poets are empowered by words when they write them and share them with an audience, and they empower the listeners by presenting their poems. It's a wonderful cycle that might help kids take off with words on their own.
Okay, this is bonus key "eight." When performing for kids, never let yourself get too nervous before you go out on stage or stand in front of them in the open cafeteria or gym. This tip is very important to remember: kids are very "forgiving" and they laugh easily. So if anything goes wrong with your props, your electronic equipment or the script that's inside your head to share, just go with the flow and adlib your way through any difficulty. It's perfectly okay if kids laugh at unplanned errors. They are laughing at the moment, not you. Kids understand mishaps. Sometimes their whole life seems like a mishap. Just take a deep breath and move along with your show.
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