The Art of Reading People: Character, Expression, Interpretation

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 11.01.09

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. Rationale
  4. The Science Behind Connecting to Literature
  5. Opening Up the Character Analysis Toolkit
  6. Strategies
  7. Introduction to the Unit
  8. Activity: Nonverbal Communication
  9. Socratic Seminar: Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son"
  10. Collaborative Activity: Interpreting Character Change in the Short Story "Shells"
  11. Character Journals and the Novel Indigo
  12. Culminating Activity: Take a Walk in My Shoes
  13. Notes
  14. Common Core Standards for Fifth Grade
  15. Resources on the Web for Teachers

Reading Between the Lines: The Secret Lives of Characters

Nancy Ventresca

Published September 2011

Tools for this Unit:

Introduction to the Unit

Since this unit focuses on the concept of change in literature and in students themselves, the first activity will begin with brainstorming and categorizing the students' ideas about change. Students will be broken into small groups and given markers and chart paper. Plan to guide their discussion by posting the following questions on the board:

- What words come to mind when you hear the word "change"? What kinds of things change? How can you tell if something has changed?

After a whole class discussion of responses, have groups brainstorm and write examples of things that change on sticky notes. Encourage them to think of as many examples as possible.

Next, have students begin to put their sticky note examples into groups and giving each group a title. Guiding questions might include:

- How can you categorize your ideas into groups?

- Do all your changes fall into your groups? Might some fall into more than one group?

- Based on your ideas, what are some characteristics of change?

Now, have students brainstorm about things that do NOT change:

- What are some things that don't change?

- How do you know that they haven't changed?

- Can you group these things that don't change?

- How are these things different from your brainstormed list of things that do change?

Close with a whole class discussion and create a display of their brainstorming work. Looking at the various ideas, ask students if they can begin to make some generalizations about change. Use a good definition of generalization, which could also be posted, such as "a generalization is something that is always or almost always true". Possible generalizations might focus on the following:

- There is often a link between change and time

- Change can be viewed as positive or negative

- Some changes follow an expected pattern, while some happen randomly

Given these generalizations, students will then take another look at their sticky-note responses, placing them where they think they fit the best.

This activity was adapted from Kendall Hunt's Autobiographies and Memoirs 2 5.

Comments:

Be the first to comment on this unit!

Add a Comment

Characters Left: 500

Unit Survey
Feedback