Objectives

1. “That’s okay, ma’am, you’ll get to know all the county folks after a while. The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back—no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of nobody, they get alond on what they have. They don’t have much, but they get along on it.” –Scout, Ch. 3, To Kill A Mockingbird Objectives • Students will discover the effect of voice as they manipulate tense within their own work. (E1-5.2, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3b) • Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles. (E1-1.6, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.3) • Students will have opportunity to create dialogue within their own pieces of writing. (E1-4.6, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.3)

2. I Don’t Wanna Grow Up! Journal Free Write Lesson on Subject-Verb Tense Compare and Contrast two childhood memory excerpts Collaborative Authors: Childhood Memory

3. Free Write Pen tries to keep up with brain, don’t let it leave the paper! Adjectives, nouns, verbs, anything that comes to mind!

4. Ready, Set, Write! • Childhood Circle top three words you wrote down that you think capture the “voice” of childhood best • Adulthood • Circle top three words you wrote down that you think capture the “voice” of adulthood best.

5. Voice Can you recognize who a person is even when you can’t see them? Voice: How the narrator, character or author views and presents the world to the reader. Perspective (noun): a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something.

6. Subject-Verb Agreement It happens in every single sentence! Look! We just used Subject-Verb Agreement. “Cities fell. Earth opened. Planets tilted. Stars plummeted.” –Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War Subject: Cities, Earth, Planets, Stars. These are all:A. Nouns (person, place, thing)B. Adjectives (modify or describe nouns)C. Verbs (action, state of being or occurrence) Fell, opened, tilted, plummeted. These are all:A. Nouns (person, place, thing)B. Adjectives (modify or describe nouns)C. Verbs (action, state of being or occurrence)

7. Identity Battle As we read the following passage, half of the class will identify the subjects of each sentence (noun or noun phrase being or doing something). The other half will identify the verbs. If you want to work with a neighbor on your team to double check your work, you may do so.

8. “He said nothing in defense of himself. How could he? Everything his aunt said was true. He was ridiculously small. His ears were obscenely large. He had been born with his eyes open. And he was sickly. He coughed and sneezed so often that he carried a handkerchief in one paw at all times. He ran temperatures. He fainted at loud noises. Most alarming of all, he showed no interest in the things a mouse should show interest in.”-Katie DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

9. “He said nothing in defense of himself. How could he? Everything his aunt said was true. He was ridiculously small. His ears were obscenely large. He had been born with his eyes open. And he was sickly. He coughed and sneezed so often that he carried a handkerchief in one paw at all times. He ran temperatures. He fainted at loud noises. Most alarming of all, he showed no interest in the things a mouse should show interest in.”-Katie DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

10. Tense: It’s all about the verbs Present Past -Here and Now. I am working. You feel cold. They are excited. -Thoughts and actions have already occurred. I was working. You felt cold. They were excited.

11. Childhood The past can be written about in the present tense or the past tense. White, Black and Jewish by Alice Walker, narrator: herself, the author-Read along-What tense does this author use? Circle one or two examples.-What effect does this have on the voice of the narrator? (Think back to the words from the free-write) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, narrator: Scout-Read along-What tense does this author use? Circle one or two examples.-What effect does this have on the voice of the narrator? (Think back to the words from the free-write) **retrospect (noun): a review, survey, or contemplation of things in the past.

12. Turn on the time machine…*participation points* Think about a memory from when you were around Scout and Alice’s age (elementary school) and got into a little trouble at school. (Keep it classroom-appropriate!)-Choose a tense to write in. -How did you feel as a kid, what did you think?-You will have six minutes, get us to the meat of the story, quick!-Will be turned in as the exit slip for this class.

13. You are what you eat say: Dialogue and Dialect • Think back to the passage where Scout is at school. Think about the way she, Walter Cunningham and Ms. Caroline spoke to each other. • Answer the following questions in your notes:-What have you noticed thus far about how the characters speak in To Kill A Mockingbird?-Do all of the characters speak the same way?-How does the dialogue indirectly characterize the characters and community?

14. Detective Work • We are going to listen to five recordings of people from different regions of the United States. For each recording, write down in your notes where you “suspect” each person…1. Is from? 2. Education level? 3. Age? 4. Ethnicity?What clues are you using to determine these suspicions?

15. Voices Characterize Suspect #1:-white, male, 48, attorney at law Suspect #2:-white, female, 21, college educated Subject #4: black, male, 20 Subject #3: Puerto Rican, male, 29, high school education Subject #5: white, female, in college

16. Group Work, be prepared to discuss: Come up with a group definition of the word “dialect.” What can you tell about a person by the way he or she speaks? Do you think these things are important? How does a person’s community affect one’s dialect? What are the benefits of speaking with a dialect? What are the drawbacks?