My Voice

This came from a lesson that a fellow teacher demonstrated for my summer institute on getting kids to recognize and demonstrate voice in writing. With many students they haven't enough writing experience to really decide what their voice is, but when I did this activity I really feel it put a concrete feeling to what your personal voice is in your writing.

Recipe for My Voice

Ingredients

2 cups of compassion
4 Tablespoons of playfulness
1/2 cup of respect for others
2 Tablespoons of glee
3 Tablespoons of encouragement
a dash of confidence
2 cups of anxiety
1 cup of eithera fear, uncertainty, or guilt
Sarcasm and humor sprinkles on top

Recipe

1. To form the base of this complicated souffle, pack down the 2 cups of compassion so that it forms a strong, solid layer underneath everything else. Sprinkle 4 TBS of playfulness on top of this compassionate base.

2. In a seperate bowl, stir 2 TBS. of glee with 3 TBS. of encouragement. At this point add the dash of confidence. (Note: Confidence is a rare ingredient. If it can not be found than imitation extract of confidence will fool you average taster, but unfortunately not the consumer with the very fine palate.) This will be the next layer.

3. The final layer, which does create an admittedly sour cream crust, is made of 2 cups anxiety (make sure anxiety has sat out and simmered for at least 24 hours) To the anxiety, fold in the cup of fear, uncertainty, or guilt. Pour this mixture on top of the sweet filling for a contrast of flavors. Finally, however, to tone down the bite of the top layer, sprinkle with humor and sarcasm.

Warning: When baking, timing is so important. The humor and sarcasm should, like yeast, cause the concoction to rise; however, depending on the air of the room, to humid, for example, or too cold, and the souffle may fall flat.