Storytelling: Fictional Narratives, Imaginary People, and the Reader's Real Life

Classroom Activities

Days 1-3

This unit begins with the students reading The Poisonwood Bible in its entirety outside of class. I have assigned the text as summer reading. The lessons are designed with the understanding that the students are essentially rereading this text, and that they have a general understanding of events of the novel.

We will begin the unit with a discussion of voice and the different components of voice, which are diction, syntax, selection of detail, figurative language, and tone. I will ask the students to define each of the terms first and we will put working definitions on the board. Then I will give them my very specific definitions for each term. We will discuss the differences between the student made definitions and the ones I gave them. This discussion is important because it is actually a discussion of diction. Many of the student definitions will provide a general sense of what the terms mean, but my definitions will probably be more specific. In our discussion of the definitions students will begin to consider why certain words within a definition are important.

After our discussion of the terms we will go through each term and look at examples from The Poisonwood Bible and other texts. I will provide students will one example from The Poisonwood Bible which we will discuss in class as a group. Then they will receive another example from various texts I know they have read during high school as take home practice. Students will be asked to write a short paragraph analyzing one of the voice elements for each example.

The first day of the lesson will be spent on the discussion of definitions. The second and third days of the lesson will be spent on discussion of the various components of voice using excerpts from The Poisonwood Bible. For example, on day two we will discuss diction, syntax, and selection of detail. For homework the students will receive three examples from other texts, one example for each component of voice covered that day. The students will then write a short paragraph of analysis for each example. On day three we will discuss figurative language and tone and then the students will get two more examples from other texts for homework. While I have three days allotted for this work, it should be noted that this could certainly take longer depending on the needs of the students in the class.

Day 4

This day is meant for reviewing the concepts and looking at the student homework assignments. We will review the concepts by looking at how the students wrote about diction, syntax, selection of detail, figurative language, and tone. I have a device called an ELMO in my classroom that allows me to take any piece of paper and project it up on a screen. I will use the ELMO to project different student homework assignments for class discussion. If you do not have an ELMO you could photocopy student examples to pass out to the students.

When looking at the student examples we will consider the validity of the analysis and the way the ideas are expressed. This way we can review concepts while also getting a writing lesson in early in the school year.

Days 5-9

This lesson introduces the student teaching activity discussed in the Strategies section of this unit and models it for the students. The first day will be used to pass out and discuss all of the paperwork involved in this activity. We will first discuss the overall assignment. Next, we will look at the paperwork they are expected to hand in for the project, and they will receive my examples of that paperwork for the Ruth May portion of the novel that I will teach to them. Finally they will receive their group teaching assignments and have a chance to discuss things with their groups. Students can sign up for their teaching date the following day when they arrive to class.

Over the next three days we will examine the narratives of Ruth May and her voice. These lessons will each last about 30 to 35 minutes, which will leave the students with the last eight to ten minutes of class to sit with their groups and discuss some ideas or ask me questions about procedures and things they are thinking about. On the last of the three days of discussion I will give the students a writing assignment based on our discussion of Ruth May's voice. The students will be asked to characterize Ruth May's voice and the character's purpose. Within their writing they will need to identify lines that support their ideas and the textual evidence must span the novel. The students are expected to identify voice components, examine how those components add meaning to the text, and examine the function of those components. I will also schedule a day in to examine student models of this assignment once the assignment has been handed in and graded. This will again allow for a lesson on writing and build off of the short writing assignments earlier in the unit.

On day five of this lesson, students will be in the library working in their groups to create lesson plans, handouts, and assignments for their teaching day. They may also use this time to discuss their ideas with me and receive feedback on their lesson plans.

Days 10-16

Students should have at least three days between when the Ruth May lessons end and when they begin teaching. This gives the first group the proper amount of time to prepare and allows the students additional time to run ideas by me prior to teaching. Once students start teaching I will allot three days to discussion of the first group's character and two days for each group that follows. The students will teach one day, and then we will have a whole group follow up discussion the next day to ensure that all concepts were covered by the group and to add depth to our discussions. I allot three days to the first group because a majority of day two will be spent having the debrief discussion as noted in the Strategies section of this unit.

Days 16-20

These are the concluding days of the unit which will be spent discussing Orleanna's narratives and the overall meaning of the work as a whole. Once the student teaching is complete we will have wrap up discussion as noted in the Strategies section of this unit. Then we will move on to Orleanna's narratives, which are the most complex of the novel.

I will begin these discussions by asking students to make some general observations about how Orleanna's narratives differ from the other characters. Through this discussion students will probably note that she has fewer narratives, that her narratives are longer, that she starts each section of the story, and that her narratives are almost like prologues to each section. Then we will begin to consider why Orleanna's narratives are set up this way. We will record our general thoughts down on a large chart paper so we can look back at those ideas at the end our detailed discussion of voice.

Next we will look at Orleanna's voice by examining each component of voice in her narratives. During these discussions it is important that the students are consistently asked to discuss what the purpose is behind her diction, syntax, selection of detail, figurative language, and tone. It is also important to ask the students to compare Orleanna's statements with the statements made by her daughters, as well as the events in the story. Focusing on these two elements will help the students begin to bridge the gap between examining something in isolation and figuring out how all parts combine to make meaning.

On the last day of discussion students will be given a homework assignment that asks them to write about Orleanna's voice. They will do the same assignment they did for Ruth May, simply substituting Orleanna. Since there was a discussion of the student responses to the Ruth May assignment, students should be able to take that feedback and demonstrate some growth in their writing.

Days 21-23

We will end our series of discussions on Orleanna by opening it up to a wider discussion of voice. Why is the story is told by these characters? Why are the narrators only women? Why are Orleanna's narratives limited? Whose story is actually being told? Who actually has a speaking voice in the story? Whose voice do we never hear? As students answer these questions they will need to consistently refer back to the text to provide textual examples.

This will progress us to our discussion of the meaning of the work as a whole. Students will be given their first standard AP writing prompt that mimics question three of the open-ended portion of the exam. The question states, "Barbara Kingsolver uses five different narrators within her novel The Poisonwood Bible. Each narrator has a distinctly different voice. Write a well organized essay in which you analyze how different narrative voices illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot." We will discuss the prompt and consider how all of the things we have talked about with voice and purpose help create an overall message or meaning to the novel. Students will complete this assignment at home and turn it in. After the essays are graded we will have a writing workshop using student models from the class. Students will then have the opportunity to revise their essays for a better grade.