ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the act of reading an original poem for an audience influence children as poets and literacy learners. Children's poetry performances shed light on some forces influencing their decisions. Angelique, Aiesha, Bertram, Candice, Jon and DeMarcus were influenced as poets and literacy learners by reading or performing an original poem. First, children's performances demonstrated how they navigated a sense of audience in dexterous ways. Their sense of audience, along with the immediacy of a performative event, spurred revision, whether it was a revision to a poem, a prosodic addition to the performance, or a decision to read an entirely different poem. Most significantly, children's poetry performances brought forth feelings of initial nervousness, followed by pride and exhilaration. Arguably, children's success and positive experiences as performers was possible with the scaffolding of oral reading and performance throughout the project.
