Lesson Summary: For pre-assessment, the teacher will elicit from students the names of characters they read in other stories and state why they found the characters interesting. The teacher will explain that we learn about characters in different ways, and one way is from what characters tell each other. The teacher will break the class into pairs and ask students to interview each other with suggested appropriate questions. The teacher will distribute the character selections and assign gifted readers to read the roles of characters and the narrator. The teacher will elicit what we learn about the characters based upon their conversations with other characters. The teacher will explain that readers also learn about characters from what a narrator tells about what a character is thinking and feeling. For guided practice, the teacher will project a Venn diagram with the name of Clarissa, one of the characters from the selection, in the center. Students will provide information that they learn about Clarissa from other characters and what they learn from the narrator. For independent practice, the teacher will challenge students to make up a scene involving two or more of the characters in a suggested situation. Advanced Learners will develop scene of their own and Struggling Learners will draw one of the characters from their independent practice scene and provide a line of dialogue and a thought balloon to show inner thoughts and feelings.
Lesson Objectives:
The students will know…
· that we learn about characters from their conversations with other characters.
· that we learn about characters from what a narrator tells us.
The students will be able to…
· learn about characters by observing dialogue.
· learn about characters by observing what a narrator says.
Learning Styles Targeted:
x / Visual / x / Auditory / x / Kinesthetic/Tactile
Pre-Assessment: Work with students to generate a list of characters from stories that they have read. Ask them to share what they found memorable or interesting about the characters and tell why.
Whole-Class Instruction
Materials Needed: Selection on Character*; notebook, pencils and pens
Procedure:
1) Explain to students that we learn about characters in different ways. One of these ways is when they tell us what they are thinking or feeling.
2) Break students into pairs and ask them to interview each other. So that questions might be useful and appropriate, suggest the following: What is your favorite food or snack? What is your favorite song? What is your favorite game? What is your favorite animal? What is your favorite time of year?
3) Have students record their partner’s responses in their notebooks.
4) Have students introduce their partner by name and then share the information that they learned in the interview.
5) Prepare a dramatic reading of the selection. Mark five copies by underlining the lines of Clarissa, Jonathan, Mr. MacLeod, Denise, and the narrator. Assign gifted readers the roles for each of the marked copies. Distribute unmarked copies to the rest of the class.
6) Have students deliver their reading. After they have finished, write or project the names of each of the characters. Elicit from the class what we learn about them based upon what they or other characters say. Jonathan: that he watches the Science Channel. Mr. McLeod: that he doesn’t know how to work a DVD player. Denise: that she is tall and likes vegetables. Clarissa: that she does not like vegetables.
7) Project a Venn diagram onto the board and write Clarissa in the center. Write What we learn from other characters in the left hand oval and What the narrator tells us in the right hand oval. Write “that she does not like vegetables” in the left hand oval. Explain that, by paying attention to a narrator, we can learn about a character’s inner thoughts and feelings, thoughts and feelings that they might not share with others. For guided practice, ask what we learn about Clarissa only by what the narrator tells us. Accept that her family doesn’t have cable and she doesn’t want the class to know that.
8) For independent practice, challenge students to make up a scene using two or more of the characters in one of the following situations: Jonathan and Clarissa discussing the program; Clarissa and Denise discussing what they are going to have for dinner; or Jonathan, Clarissa and Denise discussing Mr. McLeod as a teacher.
9) Remind students to use dialogue to show what the characters are thinking and feeling.
Advanced Learner
Materials Needed: Selection on Character*; notebook, pencils and pens
Procedure:
1) Challenge students to write other scenes involving the characters.
2) In their notebooks, have students list what we can learn about the characters based upon their conversations with other characters.
Struggling Learner
Materials Needed: Selection on Character*; notebook, pencils and pens
Procedure:
1) Review with students that we learn about characters through what they say to other characters and what a narrator tells us about their inner thoughts and feelings.
2) Challenge students to draw one of the characters from their scene written for step 8. Draw on the board a speech balloon (connected to the character’s mouth) and a thought balloon (hovering with circles above the character’s head), and have students supply both to show what we can learn about a character on the outside based upon what they say and what we can learn by knowing their inner thoughts and feelings.
3) Review students drawing with them. Ask them to illustrate the remainder of the scene.
*see supplemental resources
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