Words Out Loud: The Power of Spoken Story with Joel McKerrow

Year Levels 5 - 9

Joel McKerrow is a spoken-word artist and storyteller who brings a distinct energy to the YABBA program. His session explores how language sounds, not just how it reads, rhythm, breath, pause, and the way a well-placed silence can be more powerful than a thousand words. Joel's session invites students to step away from the page and feel the physicality of language. For many students, this is the session that unlocks something.

If you or one of your students would like to ask Karen a questions please contact yabba.online@yabba.org.au. 

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Building the Vote, Classroom Connection

  • Run a 'book pitch' activity, students perform a 60-second spoken word pitch for their favourite YABBA title.
  • Vote on the best pitch (separate from the YABBA vote), build the culture of opinionated, persuasive response to books.
  • Add a 'I'd read this aloud' tag to any YABBA title on the wall that has passages worth performing.
  • Students who've read three or more titles write their first 'pre-vote' ranking in their reading journal.

Classroom Activities

Years 3–6

  • Listen to a spoken word performance (Joel's or another Australian performer's). List three things that felt different from reading.
  • Choose one paragraph from a YABBA book and perform it aloud, experiment with pace, volume, and pause.
  • Write a short poem about something you care about. Perform it to a partner. Then reverse: let your partner perform your poem.
  • Class soundscape: each student contributes one repeated word or phrase to create a layered vocal composition.

Years 7–9

  • Analyse the structural and sonic devices in a spoken word poem: anaphora, repetition, internal rhyme, rhythm shifts.
  • Write an original spoken word piece responding to a theme in one of the YABBA shortlisted books.
  • Record a reading of your own creative piece and listen back. What would you change?
  • Discuss: Can a book's power be fully captured in performance? What is lost and what is gained?

 

 

Victorian Curriculum Links
  • Reading and Viewing: Interpreting and performing texts for different purposes (Levels 5–10)
  • Writing: Crafting language for effect, including sound devices (Levels 5–10)
  • Speaking and Listening: Oral presentation and performance of literary texts (Levels 5–10)
FISO 2.0 Alignment
  • Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Broadening students' experience of literary forms and modes
  • Positive Climate for Learning: Student voice and authentic creative expression