The Art of Biography

Teaching Strategies

Throughout the course of this unit, several teaching strategies will be used to address the content of the unit and teach the skills of characterization, including the use of visuals, mnemonic devices, class and small group discussion, the use of mentor texts, and journal writing.

Use of Visuals

Portraits, photographs, and illustrations of subjects will be used in this unit as a visual to help students activate their thinking, infer, and transition towards mastering characterization within the written word. In the development of mental faculties, visual literacy comes before verbal literacy. ¹⁶ As a strategy in teaching characterization, students will be shown carefully selected pictures of individuals and start with "reading" a picture for clues about characterization while reading the text. Attention will be focused on interpreting the subject's facial expression, pose, and gestures. ¹⁷

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are visual tools used in the classroom to help students organize information and understand relationships or processes. Graphic organizers will be used as a teaching strategy in this unit to help students isolate and organize information from the text that can be used to characterize a character. The graphic organizer created for this unit will be laid out in a way that reminds visual learners of the factors used to characterize an individual, including the character's speech, thoughts, and actions, a physical description of the character, and the reaction of others to the character. A matrix graphic organizer will be used to assist students in recognizing that a logical sequence or step must occur in their thinking to lead them from textual evidence to inferring a character trait. The use of this graphic organizer will also support students in verbally explaining "how they know" when inferring a character trait by highlighting textual evidence. ¹⁸

Use of a Mnemonic Device (STEAL)

The skill of characterizing will be taught through the memorization of a mnemonic device adopted from ReadWriteThink. The acronym STEAL will be used to help students remember the pieces of information used in characterization. The letters of STEAL stand for the character's Speech, Thoughts, Effects on Others, Actions, and Looks. ¹⁹

Discussion and Use of Probing Questions:

Class and small group discussion with the incorporation of probing questions will be used at frequent points throughout the unit. Discussions will give students a platform upon which to explore ideas, clarify thinking, and arrive at conclusions about the content of the unit. ²⁰

Use of Mentor Texts

Mentor texts are texts that provide examples of exceptional writing style and craft techniques that students should aim to emulate. Roald Dahl's autobiography serves as the primary mentor text in this unit. Other short excerpts from autobiographies may be used for the purposes of emphasizing and illustrating characterization techniques that authors use. ²¹

Writer's Journals

The use of writer's journals will serve two purposes in this unit. This informal writing, in which very little to no attention is paid to the mechanics of spelling and grammar, will be used to help students explore and reflect on their stories from childhood. Second, writer's journals will serve as a collection of student writing that can be used for the practice of revision in writing techniques.