Voice Lessons: Understanding the Writer's Tools

by Nancy Dean

How does Kate Chopin create a mood in just a few sentences? How does Shakespeare make a character say one thing and mean another? Help your students understand how expert writers control voice and use the power of language. Students will develop an understanding of the elements comprising an author's unique voice--diction, detail, figurative language, imagery, syntax, and tone--and develop the skills needed to express their own unique voices. Voice Lessons provides 35 short passages from complex fiction and nonfiction. Each sharply focused example targets a specific element of voice. Also included are 65 lessons based on longer pieces of text. These lessons integrate the elements of voice and help students understand how they work together. Teachers can use Voice Lessons successfully with any high school curriculum. The short-passage lessons present the elements of voice in manageable exercises that function well as class openers or mini-lessons. Activities in each lesson serve as writing prompts for students to apply what they have learned from specific passages. Lessons on the longer text provide additional models and practice. These lessons also work together within each genre (essay, short story, speech, poem, and drama) and serve well as mini-units to teach voice and literary analysis and to help students develop a personal voice. Notes after each section provide background and discussion suggestions for teachers.