Today’s poem is called, “Totally, Like, Whatever,” by Taylor Mali. I’m sure you’ve seen one of his other videos (What Teachers Make), so you’re probably familiar with him. I think he’s, like, totally awesome.
When I present a spoken word performance to students, I always
introduce it with a a few questions related to the content of the poem. Usually, these questions are a way to get the students to think about the topic and start to invest themselves in it. Students are more likely to understand content when they understand that it is relevant to them. Here are my questions for this poem:
1) Look at the picture to the right. What impression do you have of these girls? How do you imagine they speak?
2) Does the way a person speaks affect your opinion of him/her?
3) Why is important for us to be effective communicators?
Enjoy the poem!
