Find Your Voice: A Methodology for Enhancing Literacy Through Re-Writing and Re-Acting

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 176 pages
• Published by: Heinemann Drama September 30, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0325007012
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0325007014
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Weighs: 9.6 ounces

Product Review
In a field where jargon and bloat often mask even good advice, [she] shows no fat Prose lean recommendations sharp -- Dr. Joan Baum, Education Update, February 2005

Product Review
“The Find Your Voice methodology offers a dynamic intersection of art, language, communication, and personal development. As a result of this training, I now see my one-on-one time with students as the essence, the gift, the moment. Educators need more encounters with finding-your-voice opportunities like this.”–Dr. Emily White, Leadership Center, Bank Street College

“If you care about kids, buy this book. If you want to remember why you became a teacher, buy this book; it will reenergize your passion for educating. Read it, underline it, and dog-ear it, but don't pass it on, you'll want to read it again and again. And buy a copy for a friend, it's as much a self-help book as a guide for good teaching.”–Lucy Matos, Cofounder Central Park East Elementary

“This methodology makes kids feel powerful, special, worthwhile. It shows them that they have something to say and teaches them to say it well. Everybody I knew during the years that I studied in the program emerged from the training stronger and more vocal.”–Robert Lopez, Tony Award-Winning Composer/Lyricist, Avenue Q, Find Your Voice training participant

Reader Reviews
A gifted, intuitive teacher with a deep understanding of human nature, Gail Noppe-Brandon recounts her own struggles as a learner and her evolution as a teacher and as an artist. The result is "Find Your Voice", a beautiful account of teaching and learning and the explication of a powerful set of activities designed to assist anyone in writing and speaking clearly. Noppe-Brandon began her journey as a teacher twenty years ago. In this book she recounts with clarity, humor and wisdom the steps in this journey and they ways she has found to support hundreds of young people to tell their stories through writing and acting. She has thought deeply about her approach and presents it in a straightforward, systematic, and engaging manner. The opening chapter recounts her first classes at New York University and her subsequent work with teenagers from all around New York City. In subsequent chapters she describes in detail the ways in which she creates a safe learning environment, motivates non-actors to begin to act; motivates non-writers to begin to write and creates opportunities for her students to perform their work for others. She also shares with us the struggles and triumphs of individual students and teachers. I had the opportunity to come to know Gail and her work well when I lived in New York City. Young people were profoundly changed in her workshops and performances and teachers found great value in the professional development workshops. Her commitment to her students and the masterful ways she supported them to find their voice were inspiring then. Many who watched Gail work and knew her students encouraged her to find a way to share the power of her educational process and insights. In this book, she does just that. The book is a remarkable combination of specific, clear directions for implementing a teaching methodology and compelling anecdotes that remind us of the power of the student-teacher and student-student relationship. The anecdotes show us the purpose and value of the teaching methodology the author has devised. The teaching methodology is presented with such clarity that the reader feels they could begin to use some of the strategies immediately. I particularly appreciated the way the detailed strategies for engaging reluctant students and motivating them to participate. The book also contains wonderful samples of student writing and writing by teachers who participated in training sessions. There is a terrific appendix which lists scenes and suggests particular kinds of students who might benefit from dealing with the material in a particular scene. No English or drama teacher should be without this book, but, in truth, it is such a compelling narrative of a teaching process that any one who cares about teaching and learning should not be without it.