Objectives
Understanding text structure and reading for understanding will also support students' expansion efforts in thinking about character other than using a one-dimensional lens. In traditional narrative literature, the first person a reader meets is the main character that is also known as the protagonist. The reader next encounters a supporting character, who sometimes serves as the antagonist. Occasionally, an agonist is introduced to agitate the conflict without being invested in the outcome. Somewhere between the initial encounter and subsequent encounters the reader is implicitly asked to formulate opinions, make inferences, and refrain from judging the characters until the full story is told. Rarely are students asked to monitor "specific evidence of character" while reading the text. The results afterward are descriptions of characters as: good or bad, smart or stupid, right or wrong, black or white. In examining characters through polarized lenses it becomes evident that students frequently rely on stereotypical thinking in their character analyses. Rather than thinking of characters as either/or, students should think, how has this character changed since his or her first introduction? Additionally, what happened to the character to ignite this change? Are the changes positive, negative, or a combination of the two? By adapting a versatile stance about character, and thinking incrementally about a character's development, students are afforded the opportunity to live through the text instead of simply carrying information away from the text.
To facilitate this next shift in thinking student- readers must be taught to pay careful attention to the concerns of the characters while, consciously, guarding against forming false impressions and making superficial connections among and between characters. A way to bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious mental activities is to isolate the characters.
Characters that have been hijacked (isolated) from the text are perfect subjects to investigate and interrogate via character interviews, oral memoirs, and Shakespearean Audio dramas. These activities lend themselves to twenty-first century literacy and can be the spark that will stay with students for a lifetime. Why is this spark critical to student learning in the twenty-first century? This spark is critical because students are not only learning new ways of looking at characters and characterization but also new ways of looking at themselves! Regrettably, the School District of Philadelphia's scripted core curriculums require students to repress their individual interest in lieu of prescribed texts that seldom tell their stories. Since the core curriculum repeatedly asks students to analyze character and many students repeatedly fail to go deep in expressing character values…what does that say about the approach to teaching this highly demanded skill? If the district adopted a more flexible approach between the goals of the school and the experiences and goals of the students, then students might be able to answer the ubiquitous literary and personal questions, "Who am I?" and "How do I stay true to myself?" These questions are relevant because they often underscore the construction of the anatomy of a character's methods, means, and motivations. This approach of connecting with students' diverse experiences correlates with much of the past three decades of cognitive science research. In particular, to hone the art of reading people, students must see, hear, and feel characters to experience how real and fictional people face challenges when they believe in themselves and act according to their values.
This unit will enable students to further isolate characters by writing prequels. A prequel serves to illuminate the important circumstances and events that a character may experience before the story begins. Students will also create artifacts (diaries, journal entries between two characters, letters, video clips, etc.) that require them to think like the character. Students will also carefully consider newspaper accounts that reflect themes of generational rivalries, teen love, and teen suicide to connect to the characters Romeo and Juliet. 1 5 Similarly, students will carefully examine the Roman Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and funeral customs in ancient Rome to fully understand historical places and accounts associated with Caesar's death and Brutus's betrayal. In creating character interviews students have the opportunity to become content scene interpreters. These engaging and reflective classroom activities provide a vehicle for students to invest in the lives and experiences of fictional characters. It also allows students the perspective and experience to expand beyond information presented in a story and make reasonable assumptions about the actions and motives of characters, by bringing their experiences as well as historical context to bear. The culminating activity of this unit will be to have students write cold case histories (historical events or episodes) using the CSI approach for other students to solve.
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