SI Demo

SI Demonstration Lesson

Title: Voices

Author: Guadalupe Ramirez

Grade Band: 3-12 with modification

Estimated Time: 60 minutes

Overview:

  1. This lesson will incorporate Voices in the Park and Storify to help students learn about different perspectives, how an author creates character or voice in his writing, and how students can read and write to either consider other viewpoints, or tell the story from one perspective.

  2. This lesson will introduce Storify as a possible tool for using social media to research and publish an argument.

  3. Students will learn to consider motivation, not only of characters in fiction, but hopefully also in real life situations.

From Theory to Practice

Students often struggle with finding their voice while writing, or identifying an author’s voice in the pieces they read. In Writing with Voice, Tom Romano defines voice as "the writer's presence on the page. It is the sense we have while reading that someone occupies the middle of our mind, the sense we have while writing that something or someone is whispering in our ear." (50). Being able to “feel” an author’s voice and find their own will enable students to more clearly identify the author’s purpose and bias, and also to write more effectively themselves.

In Image Grammar, Harry Nodan describes the “Van Gogh” approach. He has students play with familiar stories told in different styles. Students then discuss what remains the same and what changes when the story is untouched, but the lens and language are changed. By doing so, students “discover how grammatical choices characterize an author’s craft” (79).

Voice can be tricky for students to grasp at first if they are unaccustomed to thinking about style and language, and read instead for content only. In literature and in life, students are expected to consider voice and character, which can be challenging for a novice. Using a children’s book is a non threatening way to introduce voice and discuss character and perspective. Perhaps surprisingly, exhaustive literature review suggests that using children’s books with high school students “ increases engagement and learning among high school students at all instructional levels” (Reiker 4). While the trend in education has been to focus on nonfiction texts (with good reason, reading selections on high stakes tests are largely nonfiction), it has been found that students who read fiction are more empathetic and are better able to deal with complicated situations in life (Johnson). As educators, we are charged not only with preparing students for college and career, but also building character and strong citizens.

References

Dan R. Johnson, Transportation into a story increases empathy, prosocial behavior, and perceptual bias toward fearful expressions, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 52, Issue 2, January 2012, Pages 150-155.

Noden, Harry. 1999. Image Grammar. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Reiker, Melissa, "The Use of Picture Books in the High School Classroom: A Qualitative Case Study" (2011). Masters of Liberal Studies Theses. Paper 5.

Romano, Tom. "Writing with Voice." Voices from the Middle 11.2 (December 2003): 50-55.

Student Objectives

Students will

  • understand the concept of voice and how it is created by analyzing a story to determine aspects of a character's personality.

  • create or revise a piece of their writing to incorporate strategies that demonstrate an understanding of voice in writing.

Resources for the Lesson

A copy of Voices in the Park

Character Analysis Chart

Instructional Plan

I will tell the story of how I grew up adoring Miss Piggy. I was a chubby girl and I thought she was the absolute most glamourous and beautiful creature in the world, never mind the extra weight. I was distraught when my father took down my Miss Piggy posters and changed my Miss Piggy bed sheets, and even tried to trade my Miss Piggy doll for a doll of Brooke Shields. Brooke Shields was tall, skinny, and gorgeous. I hated her. Why would I ever want this awful doll? It turns out my father thought I had self esteem issues about being darker in complexion and dark haired. He found a doll that he thought looked more like me so I wouldn’t grow up thinking blonde hair and blue eyes was the standard of beauty.

I will ask the students to write a story of a misunderstanding from their perspective only.

Students will share.

I will ask for four volunteers to read Voices in the Park

I will ask for students to discuss the story in groups. What made each character different? List the “facts”. What stays the same regardless of who tells the story?

Students will complete the Character Analysis Chart in their groups for each character. If time is short, each group will have only one voice. Students will distinguish facts about the character and personality traits.

I will ask students to consider what the story would be like from a third person point of view.

I will ask the students to write their story from the other perspective.

Students will share.

Because many teachers are looking for a more advanced analysis of different perspectives, and because high school students are involved in social media, storify may be a way teachers can present a similar lesson.

I will show the Storify tutorial and a student example.

Standards Covered

  • Standard: 7.3.1. – Structural Features of Literature: Discuss the purposes and characteristics of different forms of written text, such as the short story, the novel, the novella, and the essay.

  • Standard: 7.3.3. – Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Literary Text: Analyze characterization as shown through a character's thoughts, words, speech patterns, and actions; the narrator's description; and the thoughts, words, and actions of other characters.

  • Standard: 7.3.5. – Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Literary Text: Contrast points of view - such as first person, third person, limited and omniscient, and subjective and objective - in a literary text and explain how they affect the overall theme of the work.

  • Standard: 7.4.1. – Organization and Focus: Discuss ideas for writing, keep a list or notebook of ideas, and use graphic organizers to plan writing.

  • Standard: 7.4.3. – Organization and Focus: Support all statements and claims with anecdotes (first-person accounts), descriptions, facts and statistics, and specific examples.

  • Standard: 7.4.7. – Research Process and Technology: Use a computer to create documents by using word-processing skills and publishing programs; develop simple databases and spreadsheets to manage information and prepare reports.

  • Standard: 7.5.7. – Writing Processes and Features: Write for different purposes and to a specific audience or person, adjusting style and tone as necessary.

Teacher reflection

I like this lesson because it stretches students to notice how bias, including their own, colors the way the world is seen and reported. By comparing the accounts of the different characters, and also by borrowing the opposite perspective in their own story, students will learn to try to look at things from all sides.

I also like storify, especially for current topics like elections, police brutality, etc.