Open Mic in Writers’ Workshop

It’s Friday morning. I am standing on a chair with Christmas lights in one hand and a magnetic clip in the other when a substitute teacher walks in the classroom.

“Oh, do you share this room with Mrs. B.? I am her sub.”

Startled, I drop the magnetic clip and step off the chair to greet the sub. “Yes, I am in this room just for first period. Today is open mic, so I am just, well.”

“I see,” she says looking over the gnarled strands of lights perhaps not wanting to get tangled in whatever it looks like I am doing. “Can I write the plans on the board for second period? Hang my jacket on the chair? Sorry, I don’t mean to take you away from …”

“No worries. I don’t need the desk or board today,” I say walking back to the Christmas lights, stepping up on the chair. I reach up to clip the lights to the metal part of the drop ceiling structure. A piece of the tile crumbles, and I blink to avoid getting it in my eyes.

“Good morning, Dr. Donovan,” says a student, “want me to bring over the music stand for open mic?” I half hear him but see that he is pulling the music stand from the corner and dragging it over to the now hung lights.

“Thank you!” I say, stepping down from the chair once again. “Are the four pieces of paper still there?”

I look over the papers on the music stand — three signs I made weeks ago with dry-erase markers and a print out. Yep. One paper says: “Welcome to open mic. Please take out your listening sheets and write the names of today’s writers.” One paper says “Thank you, (name). Now, please welcome our next writer, (name).” One paper says: “Hello, my name is (name). Today, I will be sharing a (narrative, argument, informational essay, poem) about (topic).” And the last paper is the compliment chart — the class roster with a column for each Friday of the quarter.

The open mic corner is ready to go. It is, by far, the highlight of the week for the students (as reported in our conferences — that and the quick writes) and a great way to show our appreciation for one another before going our separate ways for the weekend.

I try to illuminate the protocol of our weekly open mic in this post. Let me know if you want to talk through any part of the protocol over Google Hangout or Zoom (sarah.j.donovan9@gmail.com).

Start with the Sign-Up

To prepare for open mic, the last week of the quarter, every student signs up to read one Friday. This is their commitment to read for our community one piece of writing (usually a revised quick-write) publicly. I explain at the beginning of the school year that this is essential to building a safe community of writers where we can contribute and benefit from the contributions of nearly thirty writers (our class). It is about the reciprocal nature of embodying and appreciating one another’s willingness to be vulnerable. It is about recognizing that writers need readers and readers need writers. It is about valuing all the voices and authority of all the voices in our classroom.

In addition to signing up to share, I ask for two volunteers to be MCs or to host the open mic. Their job is to review the speaking and listening goals, to introduce the writers, and to facilitate the compliments. Here is a the form I use to create our Friday calendar for open mic:

Open-Mic Calendar

Trust the MCs

The very first time, you will need to support the MCs, but after that, they will know what to do. The MCs have a few jobs. First, the day before open mic, they two MCs check in with the four writers who will share on Friday. I ask the MCs to take the writers into the hallway or corner of the room and do a quick read-through with the writers. This is just to make sure the writers know they are sharing and have had a least one practice read.

On the day of the open mic, the MCs take the class through VEEPP. This is our acronym for presentations: V (volume), have enough volume so that everyone in the room can hear your beautiful words; E (eye contact), take quick glances at the audience after dramatic dialogue or startling facts to acknowledge your audience and to witness their reaction to your craft; E (expression), match your vocal tone to your content with emotion, energy, interpretation so that the audience hears it how you wrote it; P (pace), match the pace with your content so that you slow down with difficult or complex ideas, allow us a breath to process a clever line or sensitive phrase; and P (professionalism), have a strong stance and focus as you read and afterward accept the applause, let it wash over you to give the audience a chance to show their appreciation.

During open mic, the hosts alternate introducing the next speaker and helping the speaker set up their Chromebook to record the presentation. The recordings, over time, become artifacts of their growth as readers and writers.

The Writer-Readers

The writer knows well in advance the date they will share, but we write on the board each week who the writers and MCs are, and throughout the week, the students are writing and chatting about who will share what with intention. As we are in the second quarter, the students know the routine and are thinking weeks in advance about what they want to share, but many find themselves excited about a new piece from that week’s quick-writes and spend the night before open mic revising for the class.

The students hear what works well with the audience. They get a sense of what ideas engage the audience. They want to take a risk with the plot or try more description or dialogue because they noticed it was pleasing to them as an audience member. The writers in the room are shaping one another’s craft in ways that defy measurement. It is organic.

I ask the writers to set a goal for their reading. Some need to do more with expression. Some need to learn the joy of swimming in the applause of the audience because they are so relieved to be done, they tend to rush away. As mentioned above, the day before open mic, students practice attending to their goal.

On the day of their reading, students set up their Chromebook with Screencastify (an extension on Chrome) and cue up the webcam. An MC helps them set up the recording so that they can focus on the reading.

“Hello, my name is (name), and today I will be sharing a (narrative, argument, informational piece, poem) about (topic).”

After that, they just read. And when they are finished. The audience waits for a “thank you” before applauding. (There is nothing worse than planning a dramatic pause only for the audience to start clapping. Awkward.) The writer then waits for the applause to wash over and through them, hopefully feeling a sense of satisfaction.

Students keep the recording of their reading in their Google drive until the last week of the quarter when they watch-listen to it and reflect on the experience from this quarter. Then, they watch-listen to their recording from the previous quarter to reflect on their growth.

The Audience’s Role

If four students are sharing and two students are hosting, then the rest of the students are listening. They are the audience members whose role is to enjoy the writing, support the writer, and notice examples of “good” writing. I give students a “listening sheet” for them to document their notes. This is also practice in identifying moves in writing and citing text evidence. Here is the listening sheet we use that invites noticings across genres:

Listening_Chart.docx

However, perhaps more important than listening and noticing is the applause. We practice making sure all pencils are down after the “thank you” from the writer-presenter so that all hands are free to clap and show appreciation for their classmate’s writing and willingness to be vulnerable.

The Teacher’s Role

I sit among the students during open mic. I have my laptop open, and I take notes about the writer’s craft and speaking skills. I write a personal note to the writer with celebrations of their writing and speaking. I tell them what I enjoyed, what I noticed, what I suggest for next time, which is typically this: “Put a mark in the margin of your writing to remind yourself to look up at your audience. Make sure we are with you. See the joy in their eyes after you read a beautiful line or get to the plot twist. You don’t want to miss out on their reactions.”

I move around a bit to check in with the audience members to hear what they are whispering about (which is always something good about the writing) and, for some, I remind them take a few notes so that they can participate in celebrations in the end.

I used to share my writing, too, but I have found that it is best just to be on the fringes as much as possible so that the writing community can bond without my physical and vocal intrusions.

Celebrations

This is the final part of class.  Celebrations are essential for our community building. The space has to be safe if everyone is going to have a positive experience sharing their writing, if everyone is going to want to offer their writing to the class. You may not believe me when I say that everyone shares and everyone really does enjoy this experience. It is true. Everyone feels safe, and I think it is because of the celebrations.

Here is how our MCs set up the celebrations:

“Okay, thank you writers,” says one MC. After the applause subsides, he continues, “Now for compliments. Remember to look at the person you are celebrating and to offer a very specific compliment about the writing. Try to use the complex sentence stem that we are writing on the board.”

This is what he writes on the board.

“Yeah, so get ready now, maybe practice in your mind what you will say because we are all going to give compliments. And oh,writers,” the other MC adds on, “make sure you also look at the person complimenting you and accept their comment by saying thank you. Now who wants to begin the celebrations?”

Hands shoot up.

The MCs use the roster list to check off the audiences’ celebrations, giving gentle reminders to make eye contact, to say thank you.  The compliments continue until the bell rings.

“Let’s give a round of applause for our MCs!” I say. “Have a great weekend,” I say a little louder as students round up the applause, gather their books, and exit class.