drunk driving accident that killed four young people, leaving the teendriver severelyinjured. The article was discussed in terms of whose perspective it seemed to be writtenfrom and whether or not it seemed objective. Students then brainstormed other perspectives the article could be written from. They suggested: the drunk driver’s, the passenger who lived, the Emergency Medical Team (EMT), a nurse, a parent or relativeof one of the accident victims, a police officer, a bystander, the boy the driver of the car had had an argument with minutes before the accident, a coach of one of the boys, thestore owner who had sold them the beer, the mother of the driver. In small groups,members each chose a different perspective and a different genre (if they wanted to) touse to write the story of the accident.Stories were shared, and the writers explained what information they chose to include or exclude and why. Group discussion followed in which group members talked aboutwhat was the most difficult part of the assignment and what each person needed toknow to write from another’s point of view. The police report was written on a quicklymade-up accident report form so the student who wrote from this point of view had to be familiar with the form. The Emergency Medical Team had to describe the conditionsof the bodies and generate that information since it wasn’t mentioned in the newspaper.Others who chose to write from the EMT’s point of view wrote a stream-of-consciousness narrative of what they thought about as they headed to the accident andwhen they got there. In the piece from the point of view of the coach, he discussed thegood things about the dead boys and what he had tried to teach them. The mother of oneof the dead boys composed a poem that told the story of her son’s life. Students quicklysaw that each point of view considered the same event through a slightly different lens.They also learned that the same material can be written about in several genres. Theoriginal newspaper article was posted in the middle of a bulletin board, and all the pieces created from it were stapled around it. Thus this assignment continued to have animpact on the students long after they had finished it.This assignment can be followed up by having students pick out five newspaper articlesand listing five different points of view each article could be written from. Then, when itis time to do other kinds of writing assignments, students can be urged to consider usinga different point of view to make a different kind of impact. (Thanks to Diane Delaney,Hayes Middle School, Grand Ledge, Michigan, who first demonstrated this idea in TheMichigan Red Cedar Writing Project summer institute.)
AD ANALYSIS PAPER: PREPARATION
I readied the students to write about ads by first spending two to three class periodstalking about ads. Students pondered questions such as: should we censor ads, how doads portray men, how do ads portray women, should alcohol, cigarette, or condom ads be allowed, can some ads be considered artwork, and do ads have an effect on society?Student opinion varied, but what was obvious was the high level of interest indiscussing ads. Women in the class voiced concerns about how women were often portrayed in the advertising world as the seducing vixen, the waif-like beauty, or theinfantile “needs to be babied” individual.Men in the class countered by stating that all too often ads show the typical man as ahulked up, healthy, tanned, tough guy. Others feared the influence cigarette ads had ontheir age groups, stating that these ads often make smoking look like a safe,sophisticated, and a cool way to have fun. Naturally, class discussion drifted to discussing best or worst ads, and eventually talk centered on advertising strategies. Students bemoaned the increasing use of celebrities3
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