Introduction
Have you ever been shocked to discover that you have totally misunderstood another's actions or intentions? Or wrestled with the notion that someone is lying to you? Unfortunately, there is no Mind Reading for Dummies to assist us in these situations. Despite this potential for error, we must perform this trick every day as we interact with others of all ages and in a variety of situations. We must rely on our own past experiences, along with social and visual clues to help us unlock the mysteries of the inner selves of others. Truthfully, we can only know ourselves in this private way and must rely on our skills of observation and speculation to make conclusions regarding another person's thoughts, motivations, and intentions. Depending on how well we know the other person, our accuracy may be quite good. On the other hand, our assumptions can end up being absolutely false. This ability to read character in print and everyday life along with the inner-workings of this process is the focus of this unit.
I have chosen to use a variety of literature in this unit. In order to consider the way that we use nonverbal cues in our communication, the unit will study silent film clips such as Charlie Chaplin and contemporary situation comedies (without the sound) from the Nickelodeon channel. The Langston Hughes poem "Mother to Son" 1 will provide the text for a Socratic Seminar 2 about narrative voice. Two pieces of literature will focus on character and in particular, the way in which characters may change over the course of a story. The first is "Shells", by Cynthia Rylant 3, a short story about a young teen who is forced to live with his older, single aunt after the death of his parents. Students will examine the change that takes place in the two main characters through a collaborative activity. In the novel Indigo, by Alice Hoffman 4, the notion of change is experienced by three young friends, their families, and the very town in which they life. Students will take a more personal approach to looking at these characters, as they write journals from the perspective of a chosen character. The final activity in the unit has students "walking a day in the shoes" of another, as they imagine themselves the owner of a real pair of shoes and they write from that perspective.
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