Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone,   ISBN:9780929895352

Customer Rating: 

This is a fabulous resource for high school English teachers. Voice is one of the hardest areas to teach in writing classes. Dean's book has several quick and easy lessons that can be used as warm-up exercises. I love the literature excerpts she has selected--what a great way to expose kids to the books we want them to read! I use this book in my AP English Literature and Composition class, and highly recommend it.

Customer Rating: 

I really do like this workbook for teaching voice, but I wish it had been developed differently. It is full of good opening activity-type lessons, but I prefer Discovering Voice for lessons. There is a better variety of activities in that workbook.

Customer Rating: 

This book teaches the concept of "voice" but it does not teach students to find their voice. The difference is that this book teaches the concepts, gives examples, and teaches students to mimic other writers' selections that are designated as examples of voice. What it doesn't do is teach students to find their voice, inside themselves. The students do not go into themselves to find their voice; instead they go to rules and examples set by authority figures. There is a better way to do this.

Customer Rating: 

Nancy Dean's book is a welcome addition for those of us who teach AP English Language and want to provide a valuable resource and strategies for passing the AP Exam.

Customer Rating: 

I must admit that I was reticent to purchase this item because most books designed to help students become better writers have unnecessary or unusable activities. _Voice Lessons_, however, is different: organized by technique (diction, imagery, detail, etc.), each lesson begins with a passage from prose or poetry, moves into analytical questions, and finishes with applied practice. From there, it's easier for students to incorporate these techniques in their writing.

I teach grades 10-12 (including AP Language), and _Voice Lessons_ has helped all students in these grade levels improve their writing. They seemed to enjoy the activities as well.