First and fifth periods looked at an excerpt from There Are No Children Here by Alex Kolowitz. We began by examining it for elements that seem to indicate it’s a fictional piece (the presence of characters, dialogue, setting, and a problem/plot) to see how a nonfiction narrative can be structurally like a fiction narrative.

Notes from First and Fifth Periods

Afterward, we switched to an examination of the point of view, shifting at the end to an exploration of how a change in point of view might affect a narrative. We began working in class on switching the following passage from third person to first person:

The muscles in Lafeyette’s face tensed. He had his hands full, watching over Pharoah and the triplets. The young ones knew enough to stay in the windowless corridor away from possible stray bullets, but they chattered and fought until Tiffany, too restless to sit still for long, stood up. Lafeyette shoved her back down.

“We wanna go,” whined Tiffany.

“Be quiet,” admonished her brother. “You crazy?”

The narrow hall of their four-bedroom apartment had become their fallout shelter. Stray bullets had zipped through their apartment before, once leaving two holes the size of nickels in the olive-green living room curtains. Another time a bullet found its way into the hallway; it had traveled through a bedroom window and the bedroom door, missing Terence by inches. The children now knew enough to sit away from the doorways.

The five children squatted on the musty floor long after the shooting subsided. LaJoe, who huddled with them, could sit still no longer. Wearing a T-shirt that read WIPE OUT GRAFFITI, she walked into the kitchen and began to sweep the floors. Cleaning house was the only way she could clear her mind, to avoid thinking about what might happen or what might have been. It was cathartic in demanding focus and concentration. She scrubbed and washed and rearranged furniture, particularly when things got tense—with family problems, shootings, and deaths. The kids knew to stay out of her way, except for Lafeyette, who, like his mother, also found cleaning a useful distraction.

“Lemme help you,” he begged, still sitting by the wall. “You figuring to start cleaning up ’cause you upset. You figuring to start cleaning up.” LaJoe didn’t hear him. “Mama, let me help you. Ain’t nobody gonna get killed out there today.”

“Stay there, Lafie. Someone’s gotta watch the triplets,” LaJoe said.

Students were to choose on of the characters — Lafeyette, Pharoh, Tiffany, or LJoe, their mother — and write a new version of it in first person from their chosen character’s point of view.

Second and fourth periods began a two-day lesson on characterization. We began by looking carefully at eight characters:

• Pip 
• Joe 
• Mrs. Joe
• Estella 
• Mrs. Havisham
• Uncle Pumblechook
• Jaggers

Each student chose one character and created a word splash for the character, with the style of the script for the character’s name somehow reflecting aspects of the character’s personality.

Homework

• First and fifth periods: complete the first-person rewrites begun in class.
• Second and fourth periods:
  • complete the word splash from class;
  • read Great Expectations through chapter 30.