Classroom Activities: Rhetorical Strategies and Comparing and Contrasting Narrative Voice
Perspective and Opposing Viewpoints
Perspective can a tough concept to teach, because it can be both over and under thought. It should be easy – point of view. What is your point of view? What are those of others? Easy. However, it then can be exceptionally difficult for a young (or old) person to actually try and see something from someone else’s point of view. This is why reading is so powerful; this is also why documentary film can be so powerful – neither can be experienced, watched, read, without jumping into someone else’s goggles and taking a look at the world from their view. To teach this to younger grades, I often use the account of Columbus discovering America. The Encyclopedia Britannica entry on the topic is drastically different than that of Howard Zinn in A People’s History of the United States. For juniors and seniors, I will demand an even more complex challenge on perspective:
1. To analyze and interpret the different voices in 13th. They will look in detail at, for example, Van Jones’ take on the Black Lives Matter movement as opposed to that of Grover Norquist. More importantly than the difference in perspective, what do they (the students) think it indicates? Is one more right than the other? This can be accomplished through written analysis, class discussion or even debate, and can utilize multiple aspects and interviews from the film.
Another great example is Lisa Graves, who testifies in opposition of ALEC (the corporate lobbyist influencing political policy in favor of gun sales and the Prison-Industrial Complex), and Michael Hough representing ALEC. These two – both white, one a clearly progressive activist and the other a stereotypical republican elitist – are almost comically juxtaposed, as are their opposing viewpoints on the topic, to spotlight the evildoings of such a large, influential group that I’d argue most Americans aren’t even aware exists. The cinematic back and forth puts the viewer in both individuals’ shoes for a moment, allowing us to see that there really are opposing viewpoints on whether or not big business is affecting peoples’ lives through the criminal justice system.
2. To analyze and interpret the overall narrative voice in Locking Up Our Own. There is certainly an imperative, but can you (the student) find anything more in Forman’s voice? Is there anger, as there is for some interviewees in 13th? No? Are there aspects of the book, particularly chapter 5, that leave anything open for an opposing viewpoint? Forman tells the tale of his students in D.C. being implicated by both black and white police, harassed for merely standing on the street corner outside of their school. According to the account, students are thrown up against the wall by officers on mere suspicion, their belongings – makeup, combs, pencils – spilled to the ground. Forman uses this as an example of the state of our nation: this mistreatment… morale defeated, ambitions frustrated, promises by other adults broken. We tell them they can “make it” if they try hard and stay on the right path, while outside of our classrooms and homes they see and are shown the opposite, when police treat them like this on nothing but a suspicion. One student attests: “How can you tell us we can be anything if they treat us like we’re nothing?”25 This is an exceptional account for student scrutiny. Do any students feel the same? Do they agree with this student, or do they have a more hopeful outlook? What does it represent for this student to be so definitive about it?
Chapter 5 includes another story – that of a town hall-style meeting between Forman’s students and several D.C. police during which both parties are at first able to openly and safely vent their frustrations. The students tell the police how they feel about being mistreated, profiled. The police vent about how tough it is in a city where crime is so frequent and ubiquitous to differentiate in bad neighborhoods between criminal and innocent. Finally, the police suggest students wear large, viewable ID’s so the cops can differentiate. “This suggestion, to put it mildly, did not go over well.”26
To students: Do you agree with the actions and outrage of the students spotlighted therein? Can you relate? Thinking about it from the perspective of both the students and the police, including their backgrounds, who has more of a right to be upset?
Talking about perspective with students, again, seems easy in theory. But it is very hard to inspire people to actually step outside of their own perspective. Using these texts with such heavily-weighted, compellingly important themes, I am hopeful, will succeed in accomplishing that in many cases.
Argument
Another challenge for students will be to differentiate between argument and perspective. Can we have one without the other? If someone is not actively making an argument (a point), can we glean their perspective? The two invariably go hand in hand, yet we will in this unit attempt to differentiate between perspective and argument through analysis of the two main texts.
In 13th, essentially different interviewees are arguing: 1. For the main thrust of the film (that mass incarceration is the modern form of slavery); 2. Against one another about different building points to that end. The overarching voice over of the film, the narrator, simply fills in information as the film progresses, not making any arguments himself; the interviewees do that. It will be interesting to have the students analyze this – what do they think of this argument style as opposed to Forman’s, which is described next.
In Locking Up Our Own, Forman gives a narrative history with examples, opinions, and flash forwards to his own experience as a public defender and charter school founder and teacher. Tackling similar ground in criminal justice, there is certainly a fertile opportunity for comparison of argument. The film contains the argument of many, while the book is more complex. It could be said that it the argument of one – the author. However, the arguments made by Forman are based on an amalgam of history, actions, decisions, opinions and accounts.
As Forman describes them, “small, distinct steps” led to the state of modern mass incarceration today. There were decisions by policy makers and decision makers in D.C. surrounding cataclysmic drug epidemics and growing tensions in black communities dealing with racism. Black judges and even Mayor Marion Barry would make decisions that would adversely impact the black community and influence its history. Folks refused to explore root causes and indicted drug addicts as criminals instead of people who needed treatment, filling prisons and paving the way for more and harsher penal measures, instead of more and better beds in treatment facilities. If drugs are a policing issue instead of a public health issue, Forman argues, then we end up exactly where we are: in a country unbalanced in criminal justice. Students should insert their own perspective into these arguments, and be able to use the texts to provide evidence.
Providing Evidence
I often tell my students that no one believes them. Right up front, anyway, and why should they? No one really knows if we are telling the truth, about anything. No one can see inside another’s head and know they are speaking the truth. So in a world where they need to prove they are the dependable person, the go-to guy or gal, when a job or spot at a college or even a social relationship is at stake, they need to be the one who can prove what they are saying is right. To do this, they need to have the evidence. This is how we start a conversation about research. In order to do this, they must always check at least several sources so they know they’re right before they represent anything as their own information, and the facts and ideas from this unit and these text add another dimension to that. They can obviously refer to these texts for evidence on mass incarceration, and all of these skills and themes can be hunted for in them. Another interesting source I found while researching some of these statistics is the Washington Post’s fact checking on the statistic that America represents 5% of the world’s population and 25% of its prisoners. The numbers generally add up, but can be argued against even so, as some countries are thought to underrepresent in their statistics, amongst other factors.27 A link to this article can be found in the notes and bibliography.
Student Activity: “Chances”
An opportunity for students to practice argument is also rife for evidence from these texts. Regarding the first, second, third chances discussed in the Teaching Strategies section – to students: what do you perceive to be the different amount and types of chances different types of students get – think about the homes they come from, the neighborhoods they live in, the color of their skin, etc. Why do some get chances that others do not? Students will need to use evidence from the text to support this.
A Political or a Moral Issue?
I would like to hope that this unit would be able to be used in any upperclassmen classroom in any high school setting. But I have my doubts, as these themes will corroborate, that all Americans are of the optimal demeanor to have this be of importance to them and their children. The reason this all needs to be taught is because there are still plenty of people who may not be ready and able to hear these things because they politically may not accept them as truths. This requires us to decide whether mass incarceration is really a political or a moral issue. Students can decide, based on these texts and any others from which they wish to draw.
Voice
This rhetorical concept in juxtaposition with voice as a social and even existential concept will be the final literary focus of our study. The reason we are using these texts to study narrative voice is largely because they are the stories of people whose voices have been silenced, and I want the irony or poetic justice (depending on one's perspective) of that to be palpable. To that end, students will consider the following from either or both texts (these are all good journal writes):
- Whose voices are featured in these texts, either individual or cultural? Why throughout history have some voices been silenced, and how?
- Voices of the interviewees (listed in the Teaching Strategies section). Analyze – both literally, and their actual voices: who do they represent?
- Is it even a human imperative to ensure no voices are silenced? Explain.
- The class structure of black America from Forman’s book. ---- take for example that when people hold black police officers to bear they do not consider the history – early black police officers just wanted a decent job! Who is to say it’s not so today?
- How do these questions relate to the narrative voice in these texts?
Comments: