Describe the character
- Explain to students what a vignette is and discuss the elements that make for good writing.
- Make sure all students can see the image. Individual copies may be printed or the image can be projected for all to see.
- Tell the students, as well as writing on the board, that they CANNOT use “The girl” “The boy” “The man” “The woman” etc. This helps students to be more descriptive in their writing, as it encourages them to ‘show’ rather than ‘tell'.
- Explain the difference between showing and telling and why you want them to focus on showing in this exercise (explained in Teaching and Learning).
- Read the instructions to the students (you may reread them to students who need it) and make sure they understand.
- Give students 25-40 minutes to draft and construct their vignettes.
Used with the Permission of Ans Westra.
We assess character vignettes using the Writing Assessment Guide for the English ARBs, as well as the statements below, which are an amalgamation of the New Zealand Curriculum and The Literacy Learning Progressions.
For Year 5:
- construct texts that demonstrate an understanding of purpose and audience through deliberate choice of content, language, and text form. They should proofread the text to check the grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
- construct texts that are appropriate for their purpose and audience.
- organise their text using an appropriate and effective structure that achieves a sense of coherence and wholeness.
- convey and sustain personal voice where appropriate.
- select vocabulary that is appropriate to the topic, register and purpose: for this exercise, precise and descriptive words to create a mental image.
- use a wide range of language features (such as emotive vocabulary) with control to create meaning and effect, and to sustain interest.
- use an increasing vocabulary to communicate precise meaning
- use a wide range of text conventions, including grammatical and spelling conventions, appropriately, effectively, and with accuracy.
- use simple and compound sentences that are correct grammatically and have a variety of structures, beginnings, and lengths, and use some complex sentences that are mostly correct grammatically.
- use basic punctuation that is mostly correct and attempt some complex punctuation, such as using apostrophes for possession, commas for clauses, or semicolons.
- develop and communicate increasingly complex ideas that show an increasing awareness of a range of interpretations.
As the image is a text:
Students should uses their personal knowledge, experiences and interpretation skills to make meaning by understanding increasingly complex ideas in texts. They should make connections by exploring ideas within the text, and recognises that there may be more than one reading available within a text. They should also make and support inferences from texts independently.
NOTE: There is no single correct interpretation of a text (including images), and it can be interpreted at different levels and in different ways. However, students need to make logical connections between the text and their interpretation of its meaning. Students’ work can be assessed using the Writing Assessment Guide, presented and discussed under the Connecting to the Curriculum and the Working with Students tabs.
Vignette Resources for the English ARB
A vignette can be as long as a short chapter in a book, or a short story. But for the purpose of creative writing exercises, vignettes can be as short as a single paragraph (which is what these resources focus students on doing). These resources provide the opportunity for students from Years 3 to 8 to write character vignettes, using the provided image (either a photograph or fictional illustration) to focus on writing a short and descriptive piece of creative writing that shows controlled skill and use of literary techniques.
Students should ‘show’ not ‘tell’, by using figurative language to ‘paint a picture’ for the reader. Vignettes should be brief, descriptive and set in one point in time. They should not be concerned with plot. As the emphasis is on quality rather than quantity, students need to show a controlled and elegant skill in writing.
NOTE: Although we are trying to encourage the students to write prose, a vignette can also be written as a poem, and this is an acceptable form to use.
Purpose
The emphasis in writing a vignette is on quality rather than quantity. In writing a vignette, students must consider how every idea, word, sentence, and literary technique is used for effect and to convey meaning to their audience.
These skills are essential for writing of any length. Vignettes allow students to develop these skills, which can then be applied to longer forms of writing. They can be much more effective than having students write pages of text, or stories with chronological narrative structures, because they must be carefully crafted to show elegance and skill in writing.
Important Features
As the vignette should describe a character at one point in time, students should use literary techniques such as metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, repetition, rhyme, and sensory details to build an image of the character for the reader.
Using Visual Descriptors and Figurative Language to ‘Show not Tell’
To describe the character and what is going on, students should use descriptors from the image and figurative language to 'show not tell'. This will help them to paint a picture of the character in the reader's mind. This should be done by using some of the basic visual descriptors from the image, such as: facial features, expressions, clothing, body posture, movement and the relation of the character to other elements within the image. Instead of writing that "the boy is turning around in a field of long grass" you could write "the dry, overgrown grass tickles his ankles, as he hesitates mid-stride."
Explain to students that we use different styles of writing for different purposes. Vignettes are a form of creative writing and this is why they need to focus on ‘showing’ not ‘telling’. Explain the difference between ‘showing’ and ‘telling.’ ‘Telling’ is using literal language in stating information, like you would do in describing a missing person: 'He is 10 years old, has brown hair, green eyes, a blue shirt.' ‘Showing’ is using figurative language to create an experience for the reader in creating a picture in the reader's mind (as described above).
Desribe the character – Exemplar
A load of country school chidren escaping from a overseas army invading their district. The boy in the black jersey swiveled iound and swore at the turn of events, with a rather stressed girl wearing glasses on his left. The children dashed into the woods to devise a counter-attack.
Difficult to read words: iound (around).
Purpose and audience
- Orientation and engagement - Text shows a growing awareness of purpose and audience through deliberate choice of content, language, and text form.
- Text structure - Structure follows that of the task, and shows a growing understanding of the style of text appropriate to writing a vignette.
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Register - The vocabulary used shows an awareness of addressing an adult audience, and tries to convey this by using adult sounding language, such as, The boy in the black jersey swiveled iound and swore at the turn of events.They have tried to be descriptive, for example: with a rather stressed girl wearing glasses on his left. But the style of writing is like a story rather than a vignette.
Content
- Ideas - Ideas are relevant to the task but need to be explored in a manner that is suitable for composing a vignette.
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Vocabulary - Vocabulary, including precise descriptive words, such as swiveled and dashed, are used with growing confidence to create meaning and effect, and to sustain interest.
Organisation
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Paragraphing - Task is to write 3-5 lines of text.
Conventions
- Sentence structure - Uses compound and complex sentences ambitiously but a little awkwardly.
- Word structure - Word endings correct, for example: escaping, invading, wearing (-ing), swiveled, stressed, dashed (-ed).
- Connecting and tracking ideas in text - Each sentence contributes to building the ‘picture’, though it reads more like a story than a vignette.
- Sentence punctuation - Sentences are punctuated correctly.
- Punctuation within sentences - Minimal use of punctuation within sentences.
- Spelling - Most words spelt correctly, except iound (around) and chidren. Although children is spelt correctly later in the text.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is full of great character vignettes.
- John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939) has a famous (two page) vignette in chapter three of a turtle crossing the road. This is one of several vignettes between chapters that comment symbolically on the main action.
- Rapture by Anton Chekhov (1888) is a humorous vignette of Russian life in Chekhov’s time.
- ‘Germans at Meat’ from In a German Pension (1911) by Katherine Mansfield is a composition of satirical vignettes.