ENGAGE:

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Touchstones (20 Mins) 

Today, we will learn more about episodical types of writing and what is vignette as a form of writing. You will receive several open-ended statements on a large piece of paper, and your task will be to write several characteristics about these types of writing. 

 

For example: Writing in episodes makes me feel… I find vignette writing interesting because… This type of writing reminded me of… If I wrote about my life like this, it would have….

 

As a model task, first, ask one volunteer to read one paper and put it on the ground in the center of the group and a second one to read it and respond to the statement, crush the paper into a ball, and throw it to someone else.

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Everyone gathers in a circle. Read each paper and put them on the ground in the center of the group. Invite a volunteer to pick up one piece of paper, read it, respond to the statement, then crush the paper into a ball and throw it to someone else who indicates that they want to answer the prompt. The new participant catches the paper and responds to the statement. This is repeated until all participants who want to speak have spoken; then, the group allows the paper to hit the floor, ending that prompt. Next, another volunteer chooses another paper, reads, responds, crushes the paper into a ball, and throws it to the next speaker, and the process repeats. Participants choose how often and when they participate and whether all statements are used.

 

Reflection: 

• Did we learn about a new writing style and our feeling about it?

• Why is vignette writing or writing in episodes so exciting and interesting? Or is it? 

• How do different writing styles change the feeling or tone of the story? 

 

Defining/Exploring Vignette type of writing (10 Mins)

Thank you for sharing your opinion on a new type of writing we’ve learned. Before we get more practical about exploring what it can be made into, I want you to think more about different episodes you remember from the book. How are they connected? Which time span do they include? What features does this type of writing have? Are the stories connected, and in what way? Which stories, in your opinion, are milestones and mark some special events – more memorable than others?

 

• How do we define vignettes as a type of writing? (scribe responses)

 

• Why might the author have chosen this type of writing? What purpose might that serve?

EXPLORE:

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Pass the Picture (30 mins)

Count off by 3, get into groups, and arrange yourselves in a circle.

 

After we’ve read the book, we are going to discuss the writing style even more through a strategy called pass the picture. I will share five images representing a few chapters from our story. You will have about two minutes with your group to move through a brief D.A.R. process about each work. Remember that DAR is a tool we use to find meaning in art. In your groups you will focus on describing and analyzing, and we will relate together afterward.

 

Before we begin here are a few things to consider: 

• We will be using the visual art as a jumping-off point for dialogue. Remember the “Describe” in our DAR sequence, really pay close attention to the things you see. The colors, lines, shapes, etc.. that are on the page

• Examine many different perspectives on a single issue or theme. As you look at these images, many of you might have different perspectives, inferences, and opinions on the images you see and the themes that might be emerging from those themes. We each will have different perspectives and different life experiences that inform our perspectives. 

• discuss the importance of point of view

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Just as a reminder, what is DAR? 

• Describe: What do you see?

• Analyze: What meaning can we make from the visual evidence?

• Reflect

 

LOOK AT IMAGES

 

Now that we’ve all had a chance to view and discuss the images, let’s discuss the “R” portion in our small groups. You will receive short handouts with some guiding questions for each group and some time to think about them, so we can discuss them. 

 

• What unites all of these images? Are there issues or themes they are exploring?

• How do these images relate? See if other members in your group noticed similar details.

 

REFLECTION: Now let’s open up this discussion to the whole group. Each group received the same set of images. Who would like to share anything that their group inferred or established during their discussion?

• What themes/issues are these images exploring? (Scribe write down 3 for each group)

• What Big ideas connected to larger social or cultural issues do you see in these images?

• Did you make any connections between the images and specific characters?

 

Transition: Now that we’ve used these images to come up with some themes, we will move into some acting process to show/represent these themes and images visually by using our bodies.

 

[A note on safely embodying images: in case of presenting some images like twisting hands, riding bikes, car crash, etc. , but sure to give your students a notice prior to displaying the images]

 

 

Frozen Picture/Stage Picture (30 mins)

Have participants get into groups and spread out around the room facing a small empty space.  Introduce the strategy: What makes a successful Frozen Picture that involves multiple people? Invite students to generate a list of the ways actors tell a story in a frozen image without words. For example: actors use their body and face, defined point of view, imagination, levels, physical frozen action, and the relationship between bodies. 

 

Before having students moving into the strategy, it is a good idea to model it and have a couple of “practice rounds” where students either all face each other in a circle or face away from the circle and practice moving their bodies as a whole group with prompts from the teacher. Invite a group of volunteers to stage the first group image with clear characters and/or a conflict based on an interesting, accessible prompt for the group. For example: “Boys and Girls” or “No Speak English” or “Darius and the Clouds." Ask the volunteer group to stand in front of the rest of the class; give each student a number (for example, 1-5). Next, randomly call a number and the person assigned to that number steps forward and makes the first part of a frozen image with her/his body. Call another number and invite that person to look at what has begun and add to the image. Continue until all of the students have joined the image. While the Frozen Picture is still frozen, ask the audience students: What do you see?  What could be happening in this image? What about the bodies/characters that you see make you say that?  What is a title for this image? What else could we title this image? The performers return the audience and new group of volunteers are selected and the process repeats itself. Once all students understand the procedure, build images spontaneously on a 5 or 10-count with students joining the image at any time within the count. Or, build images without a theme and make a theme based on what is built. Or make an image, title it, and then invite participants to spontaneously build another related image either backward or forward in time. Give them a ten-second transition to move to the new image.

 

Final Reflection: 

D: What did we do in this activity?

A: What performance choices helped us to explore the concept of vignette writing?

R: How do our images connect to our larger inquiry?