All 63 students took the stage — and many asked to do it again.
The room buzzed with nervous excitement as 6th graders prepared to share their own original poems. One by one, they stepped up to the mic, voices shaking at first, then growing stronger, and soon, the Middle School Poetry Slam was in full swing.
The experience embodied Project-Based Learning, a specific method used by Wellington teachers in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.
In language arts, students spent weeks exploring 10 forms of figurative language through an interactive notebook they’ll use all year. They studied mentor poems like “The Fourth” by Shel Silverstein, learning the power of onomatopoeia; “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout,” experimenting with alliteration and humor; and “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon, discovering how language reveals identity and voice. Their goal: to understand how poets use words to make meaning and then do it themselves.
As students wrote, the classroom transformed. “They eagerly came to the front of the room to sit on the poet’s chair and share their work, even in draft form,” said Christie Johnson, middle school language arts. “They talked about their process and supported one another.”
By the time the Poetry Slam arrived, every student was ready and cheering each other on. With 63 poets reading, the event lasted nearly two hours, but energy never dipped. Students clapped, encouraged, and applauded each poem, creating a space where even the most hesitant voices grew bolder.
By the end, every 6th grader had performed. And the question on everyone’s mind was the same: Can we do it again?