Review of a Strictly Speaking celebration in German 2022

Strictly Speaking is a poetry recitation event, with a class round of a rehearsed poem, and, for those who proceed to a second round, an unseen poem. An outline of how to run your own event is available to download here.

As teachers, we were really delighted to see how positively and enthusiastically the students participated in the event. All 120 of our Year 8s joined in, and in the class rounds they all had a chance to perform their poem and listen to each other. The students demonstrated great creativity in performing the poems. Some participants sang or rapped their poem to great effect, and all of them enjoyed the Year group final. It was a really fun celebration of German poetry.

Oscar Year 8 (winner)

When I first stepped on stage I felt overwhelmed and extremely nervous. After I performed my first poem though, the crowd went wild, and this gave me the confidence to then perform my mystery poem. Thinking of a musical rhythm was a great way to pronounce and deliver the words in an easier but sophisticated way.

When my name was called out as the winner I was astonished and extremely happy, I was very grateful, and loved performing.

It was a great achievement and am really hoping to continue my German into the future.

Alfie Year 8

I found the German speaking competition something that really brought everyone taking German together, I can remember after I finished that all of the other contestants congratulated me on my performance. I think this is this sort of environment that makes me enjoy speaking German so much.

You can take the skills you learn in class a little bit further. We both really enjoyed seeing texts, poems and stories in different languages. We see lots of books in English, but it was fun to see real texts in French and Spanish.

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