To begin the unit my students will need to understand what a voice actually is. A traditional strategy for opening a new topic to students requires them to share what they already know about the subject matter, or in other words, demonstrate their background knowledge. I would like to see what my students have to say about voice: What is voice? How do you show your voice? What does it mean to have voice? I will write their answers down on chart paper and hang it in the classroom. Then, drawing on this "background knowledge document" and perhaps some other teacher-guided discussion with my students, I will "publish" the following tips for students working on voice:
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- make your writing sound like you
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- show that you really care about your idea
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- write with energy and enthusiasm
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- write with your reader in mind
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- take risks; make your writing memorable.
Working on the beginning stages of the unit I have drawn on the hilarious ideas (including the tips given above) offered by Ruth Culham in her recent book "6+1 traits of Writing: the Complete Guide for the Primary Grades."6 I employ a number of demonstrative exercises that will help them find voice, match voice to purpose, and discover new voices. Here I also see a wonderful chance to intertwine other interdisciplines, such as music and art.
Exercises: "Finding Voice"
"Voice of the Minute"
This exercise requires making a list of possible "mood voices" - scared, silly, angry, whiny, sad, frustrated, tired, amused, and so on, - each of which I will write one on a big card. Next I will hold up the "amused" card, for example, and ask students to talk to a neighbor using an amused voice for the next minute or two. I also will suggest a certain situation to students for using a particular voice: for instance, "Your dog is lost; use your sad voice to tell about this." Then, after a bell rings, I will pick a different voice card. After several rounds of experimenting with different kinds of voices, I will ask students to discuss what was difficult about using one voice at a time. I hope to lead them to understand that writers switch voices as their ideas for writing develop and purposes for writing change. It is not possible to sustain the same voice for long.
"What Voice is It?"
The exercise will help students recognize different, emotionally-colored voices after hearing a sentence in this or that voice. I will ask a student to read a sentence - for example, "I can't believe I finally get to visit my grandmother in Puerto Rico!" - using a voice descriptor, such as "thrilled." The other students will have to come up with this voice or its synonym, such as "happy" or "excited." Then I will ask them to say the same sentence with another descriptor, for example, "gloomy." Next, another student will read a new sentence - such as "My mom didn't let me go to the zoo because of my bad behavior," - guided by a new descriptor, such as "disappointed." We will continue with new sentences, trying different voices, until everyone has had a turn. I think that this exercise really trains students to differentiate the meaning and mood of utterances by means of different sounds of voice and intonation.
Exercise: "Matching Voice to Purpose"
"Send Me a Letter"
The following exercise has two parts. First, I would prepare a three-column chart listing different types of letters and notes (a thank-you note, a letter of excuse, a letter of complain, a note of invitation, a letter to compliment, a letter of application, etc.) in the first column and the main audiences for each of those types (a relative, a friend, a teacher, a toy company, a local restaurant, an acceptance committee, etc.) in the second one. As a class, we will decide the right voice for each type of letter or note and put it in the third column. We will then discuss why some voices are only appropriate in certain circumstances.
The second part includes the writing of a letter or a note to some person. I will have students think of someone they would like to write to, then allow them write to this person bearing in mind the type of their letter they wish to write. I will encourage students to include accompanying drawings in their letters to make their voices vibrant. They will also prepare the envelopes for their letters and mail them.
Exercises: "Discovering New Voices"
"Choices of Voices"
This quick exercise may be a lot of fun for students as it allows them to show their dramatic abilities. I will write a simple statement on a board, such as "Take the garbage out, Jose." As a class, we will think of people who might say this sentence, such as a sister, a mother, or a friend. Then I will ask volunteers to say this sentence in the voice of one of those people. A sister's voice may sound bratty, a mother's - firm, demanding, and a friend's - kind, playful. As a conclusion to this activity we will discuss how voices acquire different qualities, depending on who is talking and what the relationship to the one receiving the message is. We will be able to connect this idea to the significance of using the right voice and considering the reading audience in writing.
"Music with Voice"
Giving the physical qualities of voice - a matter that one can hear, it makes perfect sense to look for distinctive voices in different pieces of music. I have selected several child-friendly pieces of classical music that tell stories: "Flight of the Bumblebee"
(The Tale of Czar Sultan)
by Rimsky-Korsakov, "The Swan"
(Carnival of the Animals)
by Camille Saint-Saens, and "No. 7 Scene" (
The Nutcracker)
by Peter Tchaikovsky. To conclude this selection of pieces of music, I will also play Mexican children's songs "Di Por Que" and "El Ropavejero" composed by famous Francisco Gabilondo Soler, better known as "Cri-Cri"7. I will play a piece and ask students to draw what they hear. What kind of voice and mood does this music have? What kind of story does it tell? Then they will describe their pictures with five to seven sentences, and share their drawings and stories. I assume that our discussions of the stories in musical pieces will produce a lot of original thinking by my students. Moreover, they will see that music expresses a variety of voices, and we are able to hear them.
"Self-Portraits with Voice"
The other expressive form that possesses voice so vividly is painting. In this unit particularly, I would like to study self-portraits, because its ultimate focus is on expressing and presenting oneself to the audience. I plan to present four self-portraits created by the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). After viewing and discussing Kahlo's
Self-Portrait
(1937)
and
Frida and Diego Rivera
(1931), as well as Picasso's
Self-Portrait with a Palette
(1906) and
Self-Portrait
(1907), students will be asked to create their own self-portraits. Frida Kahlo, who is perhaps the most celebrated female painter of the early twentieth century, explained the fact that more than one third of her paintings are self-portraits with the words: "I am the subject I know the best." It is not accidental that I have chosen these paintings by Frida Kahlo: they are rich with the Mexican cultural context. The second painting shows Frida herself in a national dress and Diego Rivera, her husband and the famous Mexican mural painter, with a palette and paintbrushes. Picasso's self-portraits also eloquently speak about the personality of their creator. We will discuss and characterize these self-portraits. (See lesson plan 1.) The activity of producing self-portraits provides another good opportunity for students to use their voice. I will encourage them, in creating their unique image, to find a connection with the viewer that would show their true voice. The self-portraits will be also an excellent visual support for students during our culminating activity - presentation of their writing to the audience.
Closer to the midpoint of working on the unit, I plan to introduce my students to a student-friendly scoring guide - "My First Scoring Guide for Voice" - that will help them assess their own and their peers' writing. This "Guide" and "The Primary Scoring Guide: Voice"
(for teachers; see the Appendix B.)
are prepared by Ruth Culham and presented in her book
6+1 Traits of Writing
. In order to get to used to "My First Scoring Guide for Voice" throughout the whole unit, I will refer students to it every time we encounter a piece of writing, even stories by Latin American writers. This extensive use of the "Guide" will familiarize students with the criteria for a piece of writing with a strong voice and, ideally, make them embedded in their writing habits. It will let them know if their writing lacks a clear voice.
My First Scoring Guide for Voice
Strong I've Got It!
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- My writing sounds like me.
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- The reader will know I care about the topic.
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- I have the right amount of energy in this piece.
Developing On My Way
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- My writing is safe. You only get a glimpse of me.
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- I have only some interest in this topic.
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- My energy level is uneven in this piece.
Beginning Just Starting
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- I forgot to add what I think and feel in this piece.
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- I really don't care at all about this topic.
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- I'm bored and it shows.
The further stages of the unit include presentation, either listening or reading, of selected pieces from Latin American authors. The major strategy of teaching, particularly at elementary level, entails modeling of the process and the product a teacher is attempting to receive from his or her students. Therefore I would like to spend enough time for the thorough study and discussion of literature that carries distinctive, noticeable voices of Latin American characters that, in fact, are the same age as my students. Having completed a careful research of literature works for or by youngsters, I am pleased with the authenticity and originality of my selection: "Translating Grandfather's House" by E.J. Vega,
In My Family
by Carmen Lomas Garza,
Petty Crimes
by Gary Soto,
The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros, and
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child
by Francisco Jimenez. Most of these books contain many pages that would be extremely difficult to cover in the ELL classroom setting; therefore I intend to present only the most expressive chapters where the character's voice sounds the way it sounds because of some cultural background. Now let me explain why each work is truly special.
"Translating Grandfather's House"/ "Traduciendo la casa de mi abuelo"
by E.J. Vega
The student's voice in this poem changes from nostalgic, describing the grandfather's house on his sketch ("Rows of lemon & mango/ Trees frame the courtyard/ of Grandfather's stone/ And clapboard home") to confused, when the teacher doubts the origin of the house ("The house is from/ some Zorro/ Movie I've seen.") The student protests: "Ask my mom,/ She was born there/ Right there on the second floor!" The teacher's reaction baffles the student: "Memories once certain as rivets/ Become confused as awakenings/ In strange places and I question/ The house, the horse, the wrens/ Perched on the slate roof." However, another wave of memories about "The roof Oscar Jartin/ Tumbled from one hot Tuesday/ Installing a new weather vane" makes the author title his drawing proudly, "in big round letters:" "GRANDFATHER'S HOUSE." This persistence finally convinces the teacher that the house in the drawing is the one of the students' grandfather, and she gives him an "A+" for the work and tapes the drawing "to the green blackboard."
Together with my students we will contemplate the title of the poem: Why is it named so? What kind of "translating" is it? Why does the poet have to interpret his memories about the grandfather's house to the teacher? Does the teacher finally relate to the drawing, and correspondingly to the student's experience and culture?
The poem is dynamic with the transforming voice of a school student, and my students can draw a pictogram showing these changes. But it is not only this fact that draws my attention as a reader and a teacher. This poem shines with vivid images, metaphors, and specific details; so readers can't help imagining a picturesque house and events that once happened there. Finally, and most important, the poem carries a strong message about the Latino heritage, because the child is proud of being a descendent of a Latino grandfather. I hope that this poem will enhance love and warm feelings of my students towards the places of their origin, and they will be willing to write about them with their own voices. "Translating Grandfather's House" is a bilingual poem, so students can also read it in Spanish.
In My Family/En Mi Familia
by Carmen Lomas Garza
This outstanding picture book reminds me of a holiday time when every moment is marked with a special sense of happiness and joy, when all people around you look happy and careless, and they wear their best clothes and say warm, cheering words to each other. This book is a great collection of bright reminiscences of the Mexican American artist about her childhood days spent in Texas, near the border with Mexico. Like the poem "Translating Grandfather's House,"
In My Family
tells about a person's cultural roots. Carmen Lomas Garza paints very detailed, vivid, color pictures about feeding the horned toads, cleaning
nopalitos
(cactus pads), the whole extended family making
empanadas,
the birthday barbeque, decorating
cascarones
(eggshells) for Easter, the earache treatment, and many other curious and festive occasions when the little Carmen was obviously very engaged and impressed. Each of the thirteen illustrations is accompanied with her explicit description of the picture in English and in Spanish. She writes about herself and other people from her childhood with a voice that welcomes us to those good old days of a Hispanic community with its troubles and celebrations, legends and religious events.
I think that this book with its brilliant pictures and nurturing voice will become a good spring-board for students to begin their discoveries of their true voices. I hope that for most of them this book will appear to be the best example of writing possessing one's authentic voice rooted in a Hispanic culture. It also represents an excellent visual work, where paintings themselves tell gripping stories about the peaceful childhood of a Mexican girl.
If the Shoe Fits (Petty Crimes)
by Gary Soto
I've chosen this particular story from a collection of ten stories, because, along with a good moral lesson, it is strong with a humiliated voice of an urban kid. I hope that it will be even more powerful for my students when they hear its recorded, energetic narration by Robert Ramirez. The story tells about a typical Mexican American boy who lives through everyday troubles, caused by poverty, of a teenager in a family with six children. Manuel, the main character, does not mind the loud house full of his parents, siblings, and uncles from Mexico, seasonal workers, but he is sick of the "hand-me-down" clothes that he has to wear. The situation seems to become even worse when one day on his way to a long-awaited birthday party it appears that his new shoes become too small and therefore unbearable to wear. On top of this misfortune, he is robbed and bullied by an older boy who lives in the same neighborhood. However, the story ends optimistically when Manuel gives his new shoes to his hard-working, humble uncle who has just arrived from Mexico.
I am sure that my students will identify with Manuel, as this character is so real. His voice will be stirring for them. First, it is frustrated and scared, because of many problems that Manuel has with his shoes and the bullying neighbor. But then it becomes absolutely different - he is satisfied with himself - because he is able to make another person who experiences even bigger hardships than him, his needy uncle, happy. I see the roots of this generous deed in Manuel's cultural traditions and family upbringing that make his voice sound more hopeful in the end.
Death Forgiven (The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child)
by Francisco Jimenez
This is a very powerful narrative in twelve chapters concerning a migrant Mexican child's discoveries about himself in relation to his family, his community, and our society. Francisco Jimenez made these episodes so accessible, that, as he himself has put it, one can "hear the child's voice . . .see through his eyes, and . . .feel through his heart." In his semiautobiographical stories, the author writes about his family's journey to the fields of California in the late 1940s, a life of constant moving in a never-ending search for seasonal work picking strawberries, grapes, or cotton, topping carrots and thinning lettuce. The life of a big migrant family in tents and one-room shacks is a story of survival, faith, and hope. One can't help admiring the young boy's longing for an education and desire to have a true home.
I want the stories that students will study to have not only distinctive voices, but a clear cultural context partly explaining why a voice sounds in a certain way. In the chapter "Death Forgiven,"
the main character's voice experiences a transformation. (See lesson plan 2.) The outcome of the dramatic event - death of
El Perico
, the parrot, - is honestly amazing: the boy, who is the narrator, overwhelmed by a feeling of deep suffering, runs from home, hides himself in the shed, and begins praying for
El Perico
and for his father. The author lets us hear the boy whispering the whole prayer in Spanish. I find this technique to be very effective in creating an authentic voice of a child, the voice filled with fear, despair, and at the same time forgiveness. I think that this wonderful ability to understand and forgive arises from the best cultural traditions and religious faith of the Mexicans. In spite of the fact that the parrot was a favorite pet, the boy forgives his father for his death, because his father did not mean to hurt his child's feelings, but killed the bird impulsively because he was extremely nervous and uncertain about the possibilities of getting more work.
The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
This well-known novel brings about pure delight by its eloquence, sensitivity, language rich with pictures and music, and the recognizable voice of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl who does not want to belong to her rundown neighborhood on Mango Street. Her strong will not to belong to the low expectations that the society has for her promotes her steady emotional growth as the story progresses. My students will enjoy hearing the voice of the author, Sandra Cisneros, reading the magical pages of her novel.
I have chosen three vignettes that Cisneros begins her book with: "Hairs," "Boys and Girls," and "My Name." Though these stories are short in comparison with other vignettes, they possess stunning metaphors and similes, fantastic choices of descriptive words, and the brightest imagery. We can hear the distinctive voice of a child from a Latino family, in this first person narration. In "Hairs," for example, Esperanza describes the different hair of her family members. She especially dwells on her mother's hair, which is "sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe." (See lesson plan 3.) All the repetitions of key words skillfully placed have a lullaby effect that creates the atmosphere of a cozy safe home. We understand that Esperanza is fortunate to have a loving family.
In "Boys and Girls," Esperanza speaks about the relationships between the siblings in her family - two boys and two girls. The boys are "each other's best friend"; they live in their own universe and never talk to girls outside the house. Nenny, the youngest Esperanza's sister, is too young to be her friend, and, the narrator sighs, ". . .since she comes right after me, she is my responsibility." This is the way it goes in Esperanza's family and community. She dreams of her own real friend, "One I can tell my secrets to." Until then she feels lonely and not free: "I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor."
The vignette "My Name" is perhaps the most eloquent of the three in terms of the cultural background that influences the voice of the heroine. Esperanza explains about the inheritance of her "muddy color" name: "It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine." She points out that both of them were born in the Chinese year of the horse, which is considered to be bad luck, but then she concludes that it is "a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong." Esperanza admires her great-grandmother, "a wild horse of a woman." Her voice acquires some bitterness and sadness, however, when she says, "I don't want to inherit her place by the window." She does not agree to be locked up in a house by a husband, but would strive to become someone she wants to be. It is really important that she draws connections between herself and her ancestors, and her voice shows both pride and disappointment in this regard.
Next she mocks the way her name sounds in English, "as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth." However in Spanish, she continues, "my name is made out of a softer something, like silver." Yet Esperanza is not quite content with her name, she would like to baptize herself under a new name, "a name more like the real me," she clarifies, "Something like Zeze the X will do." This narration fascinates with its honesty and ingenuousness. Esperanza realizes that her culture has some good and some bad influences on her life, and her voice changes dramatically as she speaks of them. We see that she accepts her Latino heritage, but she will try hard to break the traditional vicious circle of her non-ambitious community and achieve something significant in life.