Chapter 12: Authentic Assessment Through Poetry Performances: We Change the Way We Listen

Students in many public-school systems represent a wide range of academic ability, language proficiency, cultural experience, and learning style. They are being educated in a time that demands greater resiliency and resolve than ever before. Political upheaval, societal injustice, school violence, racism, and environmental degradation are just a few of the challenges young people are facing. Educators need to provide students with tools to navigate difficult times and to strengthen their individual and collective voices. Authentic assessment through poetry performances is an alternative means of helping teachers to hear diverse student voices in a climate of standardized testing, growth measures, teacher accountability, data analysis, and quantified measures of student learning. At our large, New York City high school which serves over 2,000 culturally and linguistically diverse students, we have found that month-long celebrations of Poetry Month provide us with invaluable ways of hearing the unique voices of our students.