Exploring Voice Through YA Literature

1. Exploring Voice Through YA Literature Presented by Michelle Bradley, UPWP TC 2009 June 23, 2009

2. How do you define voice in writing? • Quickwrite (2 minutes) • Share your ideas with a partner. As a pair, decide on a definition of voice. (2 minutes) • One person from each pair will come and write their definition of voice into the PowerPoint! (3 minutes)

3. UPWP Definition of Voice Voice is…

4. What do the writing experts say about voice? • Regie Routman: “Voice is the single most important element in attracting and holding a reader’s interest (146).” Source: Routman, Regie. Writing Essentials: Raising Expectations and Results While Simplifying Teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005.

5. Writing Experts (cont’d) • Ruth Culham: “Voice is the writer’s music coming out through the words, the sense that a real person is speaking to you and cares about the message. It is the heart and soul of the writing, the magic, the wit, the feeling, the life and breath. It is flashes of spirit (102).” Source: Culham, Ruth. 6 + 1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2003.

6. Writing Experts (cont’d) • Barry Lane’s Acronym for Voice V is for Visualize Audience. Students who write with voice aren’t writing for a teacher or an assignment but for a real audience. O is for Organize Outside the Box. Students who write with voice organize their writing around their curiosity. I is for Interpret From the Inside Out. Students who write with voice don’t hold their subject at a distance. They get inside their topic. C is for Craft Choices. Students who write with voice know there are many ways to write a paragraph. They understand craft. E is for Elaboration. Students who write with voice know how to find the details that really bring home their message. (pg. 118) Source: Lane, Barry. But How Do You Teach Writing? A Simple Guide for All Teachers. New York, NY: Scholastic, 2008.

7. Writing Experts (cont’d) • Vicki Spandel: “Voice is expression personalized. Any time you look at a picture and say to yourself, ‘Oh, this has to be Kawai’s work,’ you know it has voice. Of course, sometimes we recognize voice without knowing the artist/writer at all. A picture may make you laugh (or cry). It may be haunting—or may cause you to connect to a memory of your own you thought was buried. You may find yourself mentally characterizing it: It’s whimsical, silly, honest, frightening, or stunning. If it creates an emotional response, it has voice. It speaks to us—somehow, in some way (47).” Source: Spandel, Vicki. Creating Young Writers: Using the Six Traits to Enrich the Writing Process in Primary Classrooms. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2008.

8. Writing Experts (cont’d) • Kelly Gallagher “Have you ever been bored reading a stack of your students’ essays only to have one jump out that you really enjoy reading? When this happens to me, I ask myself: ‘What is it about this paper that makes it stand out from the rest? What illuminates it?” Often the answer is one word: voice. Vibrant student papers are filled with rich voice—you can hear the authors in their papers (70).” Source: Gallagher, Kelly. Teaching Adolescent Writers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers, 2006.

9. How does the UPWP definition of voice measure up to those of the writing experts? • Voice is not as concrete as the other writing traits, so our definitions will vary!

10. Voice in YA Literature • It’s time to read excerpts from some great YA literature! • Our focus will be to figure out what type of voice we hear in each excerpt. Ask yourself: 1. What kind of voice do you hear? 2. What have you learned about the character from reading this excerpt?

11. Group Activity • Now, we will break up into groups and I will assign you a passage to work on together. Your goals as a group are to: • Decide on a way to share the excerpt you were assigned with the rest of the class. • Reveal what voice is present in the excerpt. • Provide one specific example from the excerpt that led you to discover the voice. Circle it or underline it.

12. How do writers create voice? • Define character: • Appearance- physical traits, how the character dresses • Actions- what the character does/does not do, what others do to the main character. • Thoughts and Conversation- what the character says about himself/herself and others, what other characters say or think about the character • Punctuation • Word Choice • Sentence Construction • Breaking Grammar Rules • Presentation

13. Now it’s your turn! • Choose one character trait (or two) from the list. Write a short piece to demonstrate this trait and create a distinct voice. As long as the type of voice you selected can be heard, you are doing your job as a writer!

14. Samples of Student Work • See Handout!

15. But what about voice in expository writing? • That would be a whole new unit of study! • However, I found a perfect example to show how important a role voice plays in writing non-fiction pieces. • The following is a presentation by Barry Lane of a Persuasive Essay. Enjoy and thank you for your attention and participation today!