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THE POWER OF WORDS
Curriculum Connections: Student Handout
Select one the projects below to further explore advocacy and citizenship.
Each project will require you to:
- Research a topic or idea that will take you deeper into what it means to be an
advocate.
- Plan or design something that allows you to communicate your new knowledge and
understanding of advocacy to others.
- Share your work through the presentation or display of the finished product.
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Project #1: Finding the Right Words = Knowing Your Subject
Curriculum Focus: History
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Stephen E. Ambrose
Biographer and Historian
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I get curious about a subject and then I go out and start the research, and at some point it's just I've got to start writing. I want to start moving it in the other direction. I'm ingesting all the time when I'm doing research. Now I want to start telling the story and as soon as I start telling the story I realize that what the reader needs to know next to make this understandable, I don't know. I've got to go find that out. You learn what the gaps in your knowledge are by starting to tell the story.
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Challenge:Stephen E. Ambrose describes the role of research in writing historical fiction or nonfiction. He maintains that a writer can't find the words to tell the story until the story is completely known. That is the author's challenge -- to know the story in all its complexity and to bring it alive to the reader through the use of powerful words that adequately tell it.
Outcome: Select an event that happened in your state. It might be an event from a hundred years ago or one that happened five years ago. Write a short description of the event. Jot down the main characters involved in the story. List five research questions you need to pursue to better understand what happened. Conduct research and write a rough draft of your story.
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Project #2: Listening to Characters
Curriculum Focus: Film Studies
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George Lucas
Motion Picture Production
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Once you start writing something, the characters begin to talk to you. And once you've set up situations, you see different pieces and you've created different characters, they start telling you the story and you can't start telling them what to do because they won't do it. They say, "I'm not that character. I don't do that. I do this." And it leads you along a different path.
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Challenge:Do you believe only the all-powerful author decides the words characters say and the things they do? George Lucas describes a situation in which characters teach him about what they will say and do. His characters talk back to him. If he listens, the words he has them say and the things he has them do ring true to who they are.
Outcome: Select one of Lucas's films for review such as any of the Star Wars films or American Graffiti. Write a review of the film focusing on Lucas's characters. Describe the character that you believe Lucas most effectively brings to life. How does he achieve this through dialogue? Provide examples to support your choice.
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Project #3: Inspiration and Discipline
Curriculum Focus: Life Skills
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Rita Dove
Former Poet Laureate of the United States
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Once you start writing something, the characters begin to talk to you. And once you've set up situations, you see different pieces and you've created different characters, they start telling you the story and you can't start telling them what to do because they won't do it. They say, "I'm not that character. I don't do that. I do this." And it leads you along a different path.
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Challenge:Harnessing and developing the power of words takes work. Both talent and self-discipline contribute to your success as a writer. You write and rewrite and then rewrite again. Review the comments of all the writers about the combined role of inspiration and discipline.
Outcome: Write a personal profile that describes both your talents and the areas in which you want to develop self-discipline. What are the things that get in the way of doing the hard work necessary to achieve your dreams? What helps you stay with something that is not easy? What steps can you take to build both your talent and your ability to stick to it and do the work necessary to achieve?
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