"But It Censors You": Adolescents' Critical Rhetorical Decision Making in Spoken Word Poetry

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Lives and Lived Experience Foregrounded in Young Adults' Writing and Literacies

Abstract

This qualitative case study examines how adolescent poets preparing for a spoken word competition wrote their poems. Findings demonstrate how youth engaged in a process of critical rhetorical decision-making in order to address the writing purposes that mattered most to them. Findings highlight the importance of accounting for students whose literacies are not often affirmed in the traditional k-12 classroom.

Author

• Andrea Vaughan, University of Illinois at Chicago