Voice Expression Activity I: Writing from Another Point of View
In this activity, the student will write from someone else's perspective in the first person. This activity will ask the students to make connections within their own communities and ask them to think about the people in their communities and their connections to home. I will begin the activity by giving each student a "Homie," one of a collection of small plastic figurines depicting various characters within Hispanic/Latino urban life. These are regional toy figures that can be purchased from gumball machines in grocery stores and restaurants. Many of my students collect Homies as well as wear t-shirts with the "Homies" logo; they even have folders to keep their papers in that have pictures of the Homies. For this assignment, students will be asked to write a brief personal narrative from the perspective of their Homies. Throughout the duration of this assignment I will keep a copy of the poem "I, Too" that is illustrated in the book Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes in front of the classroom so that students may revisit the voice Hughes developed in that poem. Each student will respond to the following prompts in the first person and develop a voice for his or her individual Homie. The student will be asked to develop a name, age, and family history in his introduction, and in the body of his narrative he will describe something the Homie is passionate about. For example, one of the Homies appears to be a young male rapper. He wears a hooded sweatshirt with a baseball cap, rather baggy pants and in his right hand he clutches a microphone. I will prompt the student into writing by asking who he is and what he has to say to us. The student will be asked to limit his writing to about a page; for most of my students this is about the right length for them to be able to develop a voice, while at the same time keeping their writing succinct and on topic.
This will be the students' first attempt to articulate someone else's voice. My objective is to use the students' final drafts as a springboard for the last assignment for this unit when they will write a personal narrative expressing their own voices. We will proofread and edit before writing a final draft which will be published and put on a bulletin board outside our room. Students who are willing to share will give an oral presentation of their final drafts. Finally, to close this activity I will ask the students to make drawings of their Homies, which will accompany their narratives on the bulletin board. This bulletin board will be the home to various examples of student voices throughout this unit.
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