Applying Verb Tense to Literary & Informational Text

Using present tense verbs, retell a literary text with audio & visual reinforcement “It has long been understood that when people see images at the same time as they hear or read information, understanding and retention escalate.”— Robert E. Horn, Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21 st Century

Sample Teacher Modeling Text

Besa and Amari, both 15 and betrothed to one another, are keeping watch of the outskirts of their small, 1793 African village. They see the Ashanti escorting white men toward their village, and they hurry back to tell the elders to prepare a welcoming feast.

After the feast the visitors pull out guns and shoot the villagers, sparing only the young. As the youth return to their village in the morning, they are captured and put in a slave coffle.

Amari and Besa are among those captured and marched to the slave ship. On board they are stacked in small storage racks where they remain until their arrival in the United States.

They arrive in South Carolina where they are both put up for auction. Amari is purchased by Mr. Derby as a 16 th birthday present for his son. Amari is his personal slave. Besa is sold to another family.

Video Clip: The Slave Plantations of Colonial Times (2 minutes) This clip is appropriate to the story, as it address life on a rice plantation in South Carolina (Amari’s experience). The clip can be muted and narrated or played with audio.

After suffering much hardship and witnessing unmentionable horrors, Amari and an indentured servant decide to take their chances and run away. Hearing they can seek refuge at a Spanish Fort in Florida, they flee to the south.

When they are hiding in a farmer’s barn, Amari hears a familiar voice. It is Besa. He is blind in one eye, crippled and laden with scars. They have to leave him behind in their quest for freedom.

Video Clip: Escape Routes (1 minute 20 seconds) This clip highlights many escape routes of slaves in Colonial America. It especially addresses the routes that were taken to Florida and further south.

Finally, Amari is successful in her quest for freedom.

► Note: Sharon Draper received the Coretta Scott King Award for juvenile text in 2006 for Copper Sun. ► Note: Students and teachers can use Power Point to engage all learners when teaching grammar and rhetoric. ► Note: This is a model story; any story or expository text can be narrated using present tense verbs. ► The intent is to incorporate grammar across the high school curriculum, not isolate in the ELA forum.

This is a sample narrative of our 11-year-old daughter’s trip to Niagara Falls and Cleveland. She uses the verb tense model handout to focus on only present tense.

Strategies ► The goal is to integrate grammar and mechanics in all content area writing; eliminate isolation of this expectation in only ELA. ► Apply verb tense expectations to all writing, especially informational text. ► Utilize rubric to allow for flexibility in the assignment: written, video, and audio text produced by students can be graded equally, and it empowers students to choose favorite medium.