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Read Chess Rumble: “Opening Move”; Complete Student Packet Worksheets for Chess Rumble: “Opening Move”

Before starting the lesson, write the following sentence on chart paper or the board: “Come back with that pencil!” Explain to students that they will have the task of rewriting this sentence in the voice of a different character that you will describe. Demonstrate rewriting the sentence as though a Southern person is saying it: “Y’all come back here with my pencil, ya hear?” Have students rewrite the sentence as a kind character; an old, cranky character; and a teacher. Allow students about 30-60 seconds to rewrite the sentence in the voice of each character. Finally, have volunteer students perform the sentence as they wrote it. You may ask the volunteer to write their rewritten sentence on chart paper or the board for the other students to see.

will explain that a reader can tell a lot about a character by the way he or she speaks in a story. Good readers examine a character’s voice to better understand who that character is, where they come from, or what they are feeling. For example, when we heard the Southern accent of the person asking for their pencil back, it told us about the character’s background without saying, “This character is from the South.” Authors use a character’s voice to reveal traits and emotions of a character to readers without having to specifically state the traits and emotions. Good readers examine the character’s voice by reading a character’s words and thoughts, and looking for dialect (accents or informal ways of speaking that tell the reader where they come from) and the tone of their voice (language that tells the reader how they are feeling).

I am going to examine the voice of a character in Chess Rumble, to better understand his or her traits and emotions. I will model examining the voice of Ms. Tate. I will look for examples of Ms. Tate’s words. I see right away that she says to Marcus, “This is your third fight this month. Do you want to get kicked out of school?” (p. 13) I think that when she says this, she has a scolding authoritative tone. Also, she speaks in complete sentences and uses formal language. To me, it shows that Ms. Tate is an educator and a school professional. It also shows that she is trying to support Marcus and make him realize the consequences of his actions. I will write this on my Voice Chart. Note: See Example Voice Charts for two additional examples to model in class. Finally, I will look back at my chart and draw a conclusion about Ms. Tate. I can describe her as formal and instructive (trying to teach Marcus a lesson).

Ask: "How can I describe a character’s voice?" I will look at the character’s words (either spoken or internal) and look for dialect, tone, descriptive, or poetic language. I will use those clues to help me describe the character’s traits or emotions.

will examine Marcus’ voice. First, we will examine the text together, looking for elements of dialect, tone, and description in his words. If students are having difficulties, post the quotes on the Example Voice Charts on chart paper and discuss them with your class. We will ask ourselves, “What can this quote tell about Marcus’ voice?” We will draw a conclusion about his traits and feelings on the chart next to the excerpt. Note: See Example Voice Charts for additional examples. 

For example, Marcus starts the book saying, “Street gangs, chess gangs. Don’t make no difference. It’s all a game to me.” (p. 3) We can see that he uses informal language. Instead of saying “It doesn’t,” he says, “don’t make no difference.” This means that he speaking casually. His tone seems hard and determined to me. Another example we can analyze together is on page 6: “When he put us to bed, he told us stories ‘bout all them crazy things he done when he was young. Them times I remember the best— me, my sis, the twins an’ Mama, all sittin’ in bed, tellin’ stories, laughin’ an’ screamin’ till it was time to go to sleep.”His voice is nostalgic, and he wishes for the past. We can tell that he loved his father and enjoyed the feeling of being a family. He seemed happy then.

Finally, we will describe Marcus’ voice from the excerpts. For example, we might conclude that Marcus is from the city streets, he speaks informally, and he is trying to be tough through his words. We think he is angry and defensive, because of the way he speaks to his mother, among other people in the story. Finally, he is sad about the past. When he remembers the past, his tone is nostalgic.

will analyze excerpts from Chess Rumble on the Describing Voice Worksheet in your Student Packet. Each excerpt is from a different character. (See pages 23-24 in the Student Packet.) You will identify elements of dialect, tone, poetic, and descriptive language that helps you describe each character’s traits and feelings in these excerpts.