Teaching "style"

This exercise works best as a review at the mid-point or end of a literature course. Paired students describe the style of ten authors ranging from "ornate" to "plain," and then compare the authors' styles through a designated series of metaphors.

A lesson plan for grade 12 English Language Arts

By Charlotte Osterman

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Related topics

• Learn more about language arts, literary devices, metaphor, and style.

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Learning outcomes

Students will increase their understanding of individual styles by investigating and comparing the styles of the authors they have read together.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

3 days

Materials/resources

Students will share the results of their study by varied methods, including computer presentations.

Technology resources

A monitor visible to the class is helpful for computer presentations.

Pre-activities

This exercise comes at the mid-point or end of a study of literature.

Activities

Day 1

1. The teacher gives each student a list of ten authors already studied by the whole class.
2. Students arrange the authors according to their style from the most “ornate” to the most “plain.” This is done by locating each author along a line with “ornate” at one end and “plain” at the other. One author is assigned to each end, then the others listed in order between them.
3. Students in pairs then select a method of comparison, which will be used metaphorically to describe the authors’ individual styles. For example, students choosing a “musical instrument” series of metaphors might select the organ for the most ornate/rich/many-voiced end of the scale, and a flute for the most simple/plain end. Along the line between the two, they would range eight other instruments. Each of these would then correspond to an author.

Day 2

1. Students work in pairs to analyze the authors’ styles in terms of type/length of sentences, difficulty of vocabulary, occurrence of figures of speech, frequency and type of allusions, and syntax. They select a representative short passage from each author and develop a class presentation based on their series of metaphors.
2. Authors’ styles are metaphorically compared to examples from the following grouped examples:
   • music (need not be of the same period as the author) - ten musical scores or parts of scores
   • footwear (tennis shoes, boots. . .)
   • painting - ten paintings
   • outerwear (raincoat, shawl. . .)
   • smells (fresh bread, herbs. . .)
   • foods - ten dishes
   • musical instruments - ten
   • hairdo’s
   • vehicles
   • hats
   • colors
   • dances
   • dresses/suits
   • socks/hose
   • type fonts

Day 3

1. Students make presentations.
2. During the class presentations, one student reads a short selection by each author while the other student displays the appropriate example from the chosen metaphorical series. The display might be via a class-visible monitor (for paintings), a CD-player or keyboard (musical selections), an overhead projector (type fonts), or held-up objects (shoes). A time limit is set for each presentation depending on the time available and the number of students in the class.
3. During the presentations, each student records the metaphors selected for the ten authors.

Assessment

Students are graded on the accuracy, interest, and inventiveness of their presentations.

After the presentations,the teacher gives the students a quotation test consisting of ten selections, one for each of the authors targeted in the review. These should be selections from works other than those studied by the class. Based on the authors’ individual styles, students decide who wrote which selection.

Supplemental information

The most successful was “cars,” which involved a camera-toting trip to the student parking lot and identification and pictures of the “Milton” of all cars, the “Burns” car, the “Blake” car, etc. “Socks” made an interesting metaphorical series, as the students compared the “texture” of the ten poets.