Elatsoe

Use this activity to engage all types of learners while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“A Ghost Pleads With Ellie”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of Ellie’s character and voice by writing a dialogue between Ellie and a human ghost.

Ellie has been taught that waking the ghosts of humans is a dangerous practice—but that doesn’t stop ghosts from trying to contact Ellie to ask her to raise them from the underworld. In this activity, you will write a dialogue between Ellie and a ghost. You will make up the ghost character yourself, so the ghost’s voice is entirely up to you—but Ellie is an established character, and you should use this activity to demonstrate that you understand her personality and her voice.

Gather Ideas

• Decide who your ghost character will be and how you will use diction, syntax, and other elements to create their voice.
• Review enough of Elatsoe’s text to decide how you can use these same elements to recreate Ellie’s voice.

Write Your Dialogue

• Write a 1-2 page dialogue in which the ghost tries to persuade Ellie to use her powers to raise it from the underworld and Ellie refuses.
• Ellie’s dialogue should demonstrate your understanding of her beliefs about her powers and the dangers of raising dead humans.
• If you need a reminder about how to format dialogue, check this guide from Ursinas College.

Share and Evaluate

• When you finish, share your work with two peers.
• As you read their work, answer the following questions in one complete paragraph:

○ What comparisons exist between writers in recreating Ellie’s voice?

○ What evidence can you point to that supports these ideas?

Teaching Suggestion: Students will likely want to know whether they are allowed to include narrative, exposition, and so on in their dialogues, so you might want to decide in advance whether this is desirable, depending on your current goals for them. For students who are relatively new to the study of voice in writing, recreating Ellie’s voice may be enough of a challenge—but if your students have more experience with this topic, you might challenge them to make the ghost’s voice very distinct from Ellie’s.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who struggle to choose among many options quickly—those with anxiety, perfectionism, and so on—may benefit from having a few pre-created ghost characters to choose from. English learners and students who benefit from assistance with written expression may find this assignment challenging, as it requires sensitivity to nuances of written expression in English. These students may benefit from working with a partner or in small groups, or an opportunity for initial feedback before crafting a revised draft.