How to Host an Open Mic or Fire Pit

The wonders of launching a shared narrative space in your classroom.

Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash

Ten years ago during a lockdown drill, my class patiently hunkered down in a large, long closet that runs the length of my room. I had turned off the light; only a few streams of light came through from under the door. Because the drill went on longer than normal, a student started telling a story about her summer gym experience. It was funny, human, relatable.  There was 100 percent engagement in the closet. No sidebar conversations. After she told her story, there was laughter, then someone else shared their summer gym story. When he was finished, a small lull, until another kid said, “Yeah that reminds me about once in fourth grade . . .” and we were off again.

I tell this story often at conferences, but it bears repeating here because it was such a watershed pedagogical moment for me: sitting around in a circle talking is not a new instructional technique, but packs some of the greatest benefits for building community and speaking/listening skills as anything else I do. The learning target is simple: tell a story, have a conversation, talk face-to-face with another human. I call this activity The Fire Pit. 

How To Fire Pit:

When my room was carpeted, we sat on the floor in a circle, but now that it’s tiled, we push all the desks to one side of the room and sit in chairs in a circle, facing each other. I give everyone an index card, and they write down a topic, a question, a sentence stem..whatever they think will generate a good round of storytelling. We throw these cards in a shoebox in the middle of the room and draw them out one by one. We draw out another card when the first subject gets stale or the momentum slows. I don’t require that everyone tell a story about every topic. I don’t require that everyone speak, but eventually, maybe not every Friday, but eventually, everyone in the room will tell a story. 

Here’s the list of topics students generated last Friday: 

• Ghost encounters

• What is your biggest fear and why?

• If I only had one eye... 

• Is a hot dog a sandwich? Explain. 

• Nature fails

• Vacations gone wrong

• What was your most embarrassing crush? 

• I’ve never seen anyone scream louder than when. . . 

• An unfortunate incident involving animals, 

• What were you most obsessed with as a kid? 

• What was the weirdest experience you had when you were physically back at school this year? 

• What is your favorite guilty pleasure show? 

• Unpopular movie opinions

• If I were a rat, I would …

• What is the most controversial thing your parents have said? 

Recently our FirePit Fridays have morphed into an even more interesting iteration of sharing and community called Open Mic. It’s a little more formal. Students prepare short presentations on their obsessions, give a reading of their own fiction or poetry, read a published poem, or give a short musical or theatrical performance.

Here’s what some of my students said about Open Mic Fridays: 

• I really do enjoy open mic. It helps the class joke around and be in a comfortable environment. I occasionally participate, it's something I look forward to each week. Personally, open mic helps me with 'public speaking' than anything else and it also gives me a chance to share with people I'm comfortable with.

• Open mic is very cool. I usually can't participate because I don't have anything to read :(. That's mostly because I don't have the discipline to write anything good on my own time. I think it allows me to learn more about my classmates and think about what techniques I can use in my own writing.

• I enjoy open mic because I love hearing and having others hear my stories. I occasionally participate in the open mic, but I don't often volunteer to participate if others want to, because it’s stressful to get up in front of the class. This cultivates being vulnerable because it is sharing our work with everyone while it’s still unfinished. 

• I really enjoy open mic, even if I sometimes don't participate, since I might not have something prepared. I think it cultivates self-confidence in speaking to a group.

• I do enjoy open mic, I've participated every time and when it was just writing I was usually very nervous to share but when it became different obsessions I became less nervous about it because I liked talking about it more. I think it cultivates the ability to put work into the public which is very important because it forces me to not just be writing by myself where no one else can see it, plus I have to do it out loud which is so much scarier. I like how open mic has the choice to do obsessions or writing and that we have people doing both in the class, I think it's fun to have the mix.

• Yes, I like open mic and participate in it because it's enjoyable. The experience could maybe be improved if we had themed open mics, like different open mics specifically for different kinds of writing, or with a subject like we do with firepit. 

How To Open Mic:

Again, it’s not mandatory to participate, but I ask students to respect each other, listen, ask questions, and be curious about each other. There is no prep for this day other than to set a date for the Open Mic, which is usually every other Friday, and to create a signup sheet on the board, where students can grab their slot.

Already I can foresee another transformation, where we, as suggested by the last student, host Open Mics around a theme. We have an Open Mic coming up next Friday, and since it is right before Winter Break, I’d like to see how students do with “Holiday Traditions” as a theme.