Title: Applying Verb Tense to Literary
1Applying Verb Tense to Literary Informational
Text
2Using present tense verbs, retell a literary text
with audio visual reinforcement
- It has long been understood that when people see
images at the same time as they hear or read
information, understanding and retention
escalate.Robert E. Horn, Visual Language
Global Communication for the 21st Century
3Sample Teacher Modeling Text
4Besa and Amari, both 15 and betrothed to one
another, are keeping watch of the outskirts of
their small, 1793 African village. They see the
Ashanti escorting white men toward their village,
and they hurry back to tell the elders to prepare
a welcoming feast.
5After the feast the visitors pull out guns and
shoot the villagers, sparing only the young. As
the youth return to their village in the morning,
they are captured and put in a slave coffle.
6Amari and Besa are among those captured and
marched to the slave ship. On board they are
stacked in small storage racks where they remain
until their arrival in the United States.
7They arrive in South Carolina where they are both
put up for auction. Amari is purchased by Mr.
Derby as a 16th birthday present for his son.
Amari is his personal slave. Besa is sold to
another family.
8Video Clip The Slave Plantations of Colonial
Times (2 minutes) This clip is appropriate to
the story, as it address life on a rice
plantation in South Carolina (Amaris
experience). The clip can be muted and narrated
or played with audio.
9After suffering much hardship and witnessing
unmentionable horrors, Amari and an indentured
servant decide to take their chances and run
away. Hearing they can seek refuge at a Spanish
Fort in Florida, they flee to the south.
10When they are hiding in a farmers barn, Amari
hears a familiar voice. It is Besa. He is blind
in one eye, crippled and laden with scars. They
have to leave him behind in their quest for
freedom.
11Video Clip Escape Routes (1 minute 20 seconds)
This clip highlights many escape routes of slaves
in Colonial America. It especially addresses the
routes that were taken to Florida and further
south.
12- Finally, Amari is successful in her quest for
freedom.
13- Note Sharon Draper received the Coretta Scott
King Award for juvenile text in 2006 for Copper
Sun. - Note Students and teachers can use Power Point
to engage all learners when teaching grammar and
rhetoric. - Note This is a model story any story or
expository text can be narrated using present
tense verbs. - The intent is to incorporate grammar across the
high school curriculum, not isolate in the ELA
forum.
14This is a sample narrative of our 11-year-old
daughters trip to Niagara Falls and Cleveland.
She uses the verb tense model handout to focus on
only present tense.
15Strategies
- The goal is to integrate grammar and mechanics in
all content area writing eliminate isolation of
this expectation in only ELA. - Apply verb tense expectations to all writing,
especially informational text. - Utilize rubric to allow for flexibility in the
assignment written, video, and audio text
produced by students can be graded equally, and
it empowers students to choose favorite medium.