Teaching voice to student writers is not always easy, especially if those students are in 2nd or 3rd grade. This unit takes students through an exploration of VOICE. Instead of “voice” being one of the most difficult traits to teach, this systematic approach makes it easy. You can use this writing unit to help you learn how voice is developed and best of all, how to teach it!
Teaching Voice Through Author Studies
Your students will be introduced to genre in writing so that they can see that authors write using different styles and types. Students learn about these genres and then decide on the top 3 that they like.
Then students learn through author studies. Students will be exposed to different authors and different writing styles. If you haven’t taught author studies before – have no fear. It’s all here for you including an author planning sheet for you and an author tracking sheet for students with blanks so that you can choose your own authors later if you want.
The four mentor texts that are used for this unit are Robert Munsch, Melanie Watt, Kevin Henkes and Cynthia Rylant. These are all popular authors so you should have the books in your library.
Students will recall vocabulary and word choice work they have done since the beginning of the year. They will be able to use effective words to add mood, feeling, and energy to their writing. They will also learn that characters, when developed in such a way, add voice to an author’s writing.
The Author Studies unit is an introduction to VOICE where students will learn and practice writing in the style of the authors presented. In the narrative writing and opinion writing units, students will practice their own form of voice in their writing.
The year-long unit is available by clicking here or on the picture to see more.
You can also take a look at the year-long overview here to see if this is the writing unit that is a good fit for your developing writers.
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