Find Your Voice:
A Methodology for Enhancing Literacy Through Re-Writing and
Re-Acting
By Gail Noppe-Brandon
Reviewed By Joan Baum,
PH.D.
Though the title sounds
academic, Noppe-Brandon’s own
voice is conversational. In a field where jargon and
bloat often mask even good advice, Noppe-Brandon shows no
fat. Her prose is lean, her tone supremely confident, her
rationale and recommendations sharp, practical and to the
point. It’s
hard to believe that she was once a voiceless, shy
student, extremely fearful of speaking or writing in class—and
therefore hostile. “It wasn’t until I began
to learn the crafts of acting and playwriting, as a
young adult, that I found my voice,” she writes,
but it’s clear
that she feels informed and compassionate instruction
should have come much earlier. Belatedly, she discovered
how much students could learn to listen by acting and
learn to talk by engaging in the processes of playwriting—not
the usual way of addressing such skills. And though
she committed herself to work with students “of
all ages and backgrounds, during and after school,
in theatres and social service organizations, in workshops
that ran for a full year or for only three weeks, or
once a week,” she challenged herself most by
taking on those youngsters designated “at risk.” Her
mission has remained constant: to show that teachers
can overcome communication fears in their students
by instilling trust in her and in the other members
of the group. Central to this methodology is what she
calls an “integrated approach” that embraces “re-acting” and “re-writing,” words
that signal emphasis on process and reinforcement.
The goals are clear,
the scenario accounts of the slow but steady progress made
by the different youngsters impressive. Indeed, if there’s
a drawback in this slim overview, it may be the extent to
which Noppe-Brandon uses her own experience as rationale:
if I could do it, so can you. Her psychological insights,
compassion, humor, intellectual focus, and indefatigable
patience may prove intimidating to those who do not have
the time or analytical wherewithal to keep at it. In short,
the author-teacher, who prefers to be called a “coach,” would
seem to be a hard act to follow. She would probably
demur, pointing out that the theory and examples stand on
their own and not on her personality. Well, yes and no. They
do talk, don’t they, of “gifted” teachers
in the sense of born not made? Throughout, Noppe-Brandon
repeatedly notes the twenty years she has spent perfecting
her craft, honing guidelines and selecting texts
and repeatedly declares that what she presents here works “unfailingly.” She
also assumes that her readers may be in part “mute,” which
may be a bit off-putting. Still, it’s hard
to fault her passion and perceptions. Free writing,
for example, which had some bad press in the permissive
sixties, is here reclaimed in all its rigor. Drafts
and tryouts, which often went unread, are now integral
parts of a final product destined for performance.
Nothing is given away; everything is earned.
Noppe-Brandon,
who says she discovered her methodology by accident,
certainly left accident out of the picture when
she went on to develop a Teacher Training initiative
for teachers of all subjects, not just English,
who wanted to help their students become (more) articulate.
She has been a college dean, a foundation program
director, a playwright/director, and an award winning
teacher. She can now claim to be an educator in
the very best sense of the word as one who would invigorate
well intentioned but frustrated teachers to help
students find their voice and have fun doing so.#
(Heinemann, 157 pp., including appendices and glossary,
$18.95)
