Kristen J. Grandfield
The Importance of Teaching and Identifying Voice
Words hold incredible power and strength. Often people speak before thinking and can send the wrong message; this is especially true in any discussion of race or gender. However, the written word can hold more power than anything we can verbalize. The deliberate act of putting word on paper suggests the writer has purposely chosen each and every word to send his/her readers a particular message. Writers must work hard and with great care when establishing the voice the world will hear as they read. Educators and scholars cannot discount the importance of understanding a writer's voice in interpreting literature and understanding where a writer comes from. This is where my curriculum unit,
Teaching Voice through Latina and African American Literature
truly gets its basis.
Those in the literary world define voice in several ways. It can be defined as the rhythm and sound of an author's words. This rhythm and sound comes from the word choice and fluency of those chosen words. Voice is essential in the tone and mood an author is looking to establish. These literary elements are key in drawing readers in and keeping them involved in literature.
Voice can also be coupled with the message and viewpoint coming from an author as well as the author's ethnic, racial and/or social identification. Modern writers want their voices heard loud and clear in order for society to know what is happening in his/her area of the world from his/her particular ethnic, social or racial viewpoint. For example, the women in Ntozake Shange's work
For Colored Girls Who Have Thought of Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf
, convey their experiences as women living in Chicago, New York and other inner city areas. The reader senses the urgency and despair the women face.
Voice is therefore not limited to the literary definition. As people read and discuss literature, they have voices that are in their minds asking questions and challenging ideas. It is those voices that can be the catalyst for new views and opinions. The students will get an opportunity during this curriculum unit to study and work with the voices they hear as they read. Barry Lane writes in his book,
Writing as a Road to Self Discovery
that when we understand the forces surrounding us and our experiences (and in turn those of writers) it is "the beginning of self knowledge" (Lane 145). Attaining self knowledge is a lifelong process. Ideally, this curriculum unit will play a small part in allowing students a chance to read and write about events that they can relate to and continue on their journey of self knowledge.
As teachers, we certainly have enough to teach our students to prepare them for standardized tests and college applications. Initially, voice just seemed a natural choice for me to research because we all are seeking to be "heard". By identifying what others are saying we might be able to relate our own experience. During this research, I came upon another passage in
Writing as a Road to Self Discovery
, which opened my eyes a little more to the value of voice. Lane writes, "Every story has a voice that speaks to the teller whenever they tell it. Listening and examining the tone of that voice can help us find the truth of the story" (Lane 146). Truth is truly what speaks to the reader. In the poems selected and suggested in the unit, we analyze the writer's truth through word choice and placement and ultimately, through writing the students will discover their own voice as well as their own truth. In the end, that is more than any teacher could ask for.
This curriculum unit will be a journey through writing and reading. In High School Language Arts classes, students are required to read literature that is usually far removed from their daily lives. Young people, especially urban youth, can rarely find someone to identify with in the usually repertoire of high school literature. Although Ethan Frome may be a compelling tragic hero, his plight has become dated and easily solved by the modern high school student. Classic and historical literature is essential and necessary in developing a students' literary canon; as teachers we can also expose our students to writers who reflect their experience and are reflective of the time in which we are living.
Teaching Voice through Latina and Female African American Writers
is a curriculum unit designed to engage high school juniors and seniors in reading and writing while developing their own sense of voice. The unit is designed to be used during the third or fourth quarter of the school year. It is adaptable for all levels in the classroom. Teachers can choose to do more in class reading for struggling readers or more in-depth, independent reading for advanced readers. The curriculum unit can be used over the course of two or three weeks depending on whether the school has block scheduling.
As a teacher at Hill Regional Career Magnet High School, I designed this unit to utilize as much of the 82 minute block class as possible. Career is a magnet school where students follow either a business/computer track or a health/medical track. The tracks are like a "major" with specific requirements for graduation. The make up of Career High School is that of African American, Latino, Asian, Caucasian and many other ethnicities. Students are from New Haven as well as the suburbs surrounding New Haven. Each student comes to the classroom with a different perspective and a different experience. Many students can relate to the plight of a person struggling to have his or her voice heard and they can relate to being on the outside looking in. A great number of our Hispanic students come to us with English as a second language and know the value and strength of words.
Students will develop their voice during a series of writing and reading activities. A key element in this unit
is
the focus on writing by Latina and African American women. This may seem like a narrow focus but there is certainly a wealth of information and voice to be heard. Great Latina writers such as Sandra Cisneros and Julia Alverez and African American women such as Ntozake Shange and Nikki Giovanni have been writing for decades searching for a place to begin expressing themselves. They tell the tales of women of color; normally the unheard in the social, political and literary world.
One goal is to teach students about literary voice through the reading of modern writers highlighting the Latina and African American female experience. Another goal would be to have students' walk away feeling that literature is something they can connect to and actually write. This connection will have the students writing and creating their own personal voice and "truth".
Students will read and write over the course of the unit. Initially, we will begin by defining literary voice and identifying it in poetry of Nikki Giovanni. We will also distinguish between voice and point of view; point of view simply being the viewpoint of the story, whether it is first person, second person or third person. Students get the opportunity to tell their story while listening and learning from the voices of the great writers they will study.
After defining voice, we will read through various literary pieces from the last twenty years, attempting to stay as modern as possible. There will be a focus on the choreopoem
For Colored Girls Who Have Thought of Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf
by Ntozake Shange because it allows the students to examine various points of view through a single work. Also, students will examine the poetry of Julia Alvarez as well as excerpts from Sandra Cisneros' books
The House on Mango Street
and
Women Hollering Creek.
. Each work in the unit will be analyzed looking specifically for the writer's "voice" and comparing that with a potential narrator's voice. This will allow the students to take a look at the differences between narrator and author, an often-difficult distinction. While reading, students will keep notes and journals looking for similarities and differences between the writers as well as with their own life experience. Prompts for students to respond to will range from comprehension questions ("where does the piece take place") to questions that ask students to connect ("when have you felt discriminated against?").
The unit will culminate with a final project that will have students taking pieces from their writing assignments and compiling a portfolio of their best work. This portfolio will have written elements as well as photographs, pictures and collages that represent the ideas in the students' writing. It is an opportunity for students to express their voice in words and pictures.
In addition to being able to recognize voice and how a writer develops his/her voice in his/her writing, I would like students to begin to explore self knowledge and identity. All the poems and/or short stories used in this curriculum unit will express a person's experience and it is my hope that students will recognize the value of their own experience in the whole scheme of the world.