Overview

The “Oak Park Model” is unique to our Spoken Word Program at Oak Park and River Forest High School. There are three tiers:

Tier 1

School day (reaching approx. 1700 students per year). Peter Kahn, English Teacher/Spoken Word Educator, and an alumni assistant, go into every freshman English class for week-long poetry units both semesters and every sophomore English class for one week-long unit. Culminates with in-class poetry slams (no scores shown), semi-finals and finals as a whole year group in-school field trip in the auditorium with the superintendent, alumni and professional poets as guest judges. Three of the winners have gone on to be National Youth Poet Laureates.

Tier 2

After-school Spoken Word Club, established in 1999. Typically three sold-out showcases a year with group pieces of original writing (builds community, empathy and leadership skills) of 60-65 students per showcase and 100 total per school year.

Tier 3

After school’s Louder than a Bomb slam team is the largest teen poetry slam in the world (finished in the top three about three-quarters of the times competed and won the best writing award the most times of any program).