Rena Toutounji SCED 663 Advanced Trends Assignment #3: Content Area Teaching Ideas Dr. Cynthia J. Benton and Prof. Craig Kapp Part 1: Research on Current Trend Introduction:

After earning my bachelors degree and masters degree in English Literature

from the American University of Beirut (AUB), I became an educator. Last summer, I

earned a TESOL certificate (Teaching English as a Second Language), and Im

earning my second Masters in TESOL from The College of New Jersey this summer

(2015). I have been teaching English, English as an Additional Language (EAL), and humanities in middle and high school at Lincoln Community School in Accra, Ghana

for five years.

Literacy is comprised of oral, reading, and writing fluency. In English and

EAL, I concentrate on literary elements to analyze text. A significant literary element

for students to learn is character analysis. I have chosen three websites that consist of

lesson plans that deal with characterization.

http: www.readwritethink.org

Action is Character: Exploring Character Traits with Adjectives

http: www.storyboardthat.com

Character Mapping The Boys from Camp Green Lake

http: www.scholastic.com

Analysis:

Traci Gardners lesson in readwritethink.com is designed for students to

analyze character using strong word choice. The Common Core Standards that are

covered for grade 7 are key ideas and details in reading, research to build and present

knowledge, comprehension and collaboration, and vocabulary acquisition and use.

Resources include copies of text, technological tools, a dictionary or thesaurus, and

worksheets (Identifying Character Traits, Become a Character, and Sample Character

Traits). Students have an option of looking up meanings of words in the Mirriam

Webster Online Dictionary or using a thesaurus using Tools on Word. The objectives

for the lesson are to review the use of adjectives, define character trait and provide

evidence for inferences, use online dictionaries to learn better word choice, and

emulate a character with the character list as a guide.

The estimated time for this lesson targeted for 6th-8th graders is three 50-

minute sessions. The first session is an introduction where the teacher begins with

Fitzgeralds journal, Action is Character in order to draw a connection with

characters from the books that they are currently reading. The teacher defines

character traits and shows them a visual of stick figures performing actions that reveal

character traits. Students learn to differ between direct characterization (the author

directly telling the reader the character traits) and indirect characterization (the author

showing these traits in action). The purpose of the introductory lesson is for students

to make inferences or draw conclusions based on evidence from the text. Students

have an option of completing the graphic organizer that divides actions and character

traits they reveal on a handout or interactively on a computer.

The second session is for pairs of students to find adjectives using reference

books (dictionary or thesaurus). Then, the task is to choose a character from the

book to become, by listing ten adjectives and then creating three other characters

with ten descriptive adjectives (steps are not clearly stated on the task sheet). Other

students must guess who the character is. Gardner states an informal formative

assessment should be used for this lesson and the teacher must circulate among pairs

to check if they are on task for every activity. The goal is for students to make

inferences, use strong word choice, and understand character traits. The trend in this

assignment is in individual needs and calls for critical thinking but minimal creativity.

On the other hand, Emy Lopezs lesson plan in www.scholastic.com is a

lesson plan for 6th to 8th graders that requires more creativity and critical thinking.

Students learn to analyze characters using various literary terms. The objectives are

to empathize with a character, understand the difference between direct and indirect

characterization, identify the complications and conflicts that the protagonist faces,

and recognize the role of motivation. Common Core Standards are not listed for this

task. Teachers begin the lesson with an introduction to literary elements plus

definitions in a worksheet. The second step is to read the short story La Bamba by

Gary Soto and have a class discussion about the literary elements. In step three, a

teacher could informally assess his or her students orally to check for understanding.

After the model lesson, students use a text that they have read and complete the

Character Analysis Chart in groups or on their own (step 4).

The fifth step is to introduce a Character T-shirt and then show an example.

The final step is for students to create their shirts in class or at home. On Character T-

shirt day, students can celebrate their artwork and character analysis by dressing up in

their T-shirts. Lopez suggests different activities like acting out a scene, posting a

picture on the Class Homepage, and creating a poem about the character.

Finally, the third lesson, taken from the teacher guide in StoryboardThat, also

follows the trend in creativity and critical thinking to a minimal extent. The target

level is grades 4 and 5, but this lesson can be adapted for beginner English Language

Learners (ELLs). The activity is called, Character Mapping the Boys from Camp

Green Lake! (activity for Holes ), The ELA-Literacy Common Core Standards are

listed for this activity. This technological tool allows ELLs to keep a reference log of

all the characters in a novel (physical appearance and traits, importance of character,

and his/her relation to curse).

The common trend among the three lesson plans is in individual needs,

particularly in creativity and critical thinking. Becoming a Character activity

teaches a student to empathize and understand a character in a literary text. Thinking

from the perspective of three distinct characters enables a learner to be better prepared

for character analysis. The lesson plan in Scholastic is definitely more creative and

provides food for thought. StoryboardThat is a fun, interactive technology tool, but

the graphic organizer was quite limited.

Part II: New Teaching Idea or Trend

1) Define

A new approach to this topic, which would fall under the trend in individual

needs, is social-emotional learning (SEL) through the use of concept maps,

technological tools, and cooperative learning strategies. Roger P. Weissberg and

Jason Cascarino described SEL as a process that students learn to acquire and

effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and

manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others,

establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions (2013).

In order for students to improve their SEL, it ought to be embedded in the curriculum,

especially in Language Arts. Research shows that reading literary fiction improves

empathy.

My school, Lincoln Community School (LCS), follows the International

Baccalaureate (IB) program. SEL is promoted through the IB learner profiles, which

are often taught explicitly during advisory time, middle school assemblies, and after

school activities. However, my objective is to incorporate SEL in the Language Arts

curriculum.

2) Instructional Strategies

My new approach for character analysis for literary texts incorporates SEL. I

agree with researchers who argue that students learn empathy by reading more

literature. It is important for middle school students to be able to identify with

teenage characters and learn from their mistakes or heroic deeds. The objective is to

create an inquiry based and student-centered lesson plan that is meaningful, authentic,

and engaging.

The three lesson plans that I discussed in Part I consist of interesting ideas that

I could use for teaching characterization in a story. Eventually, the goal is for students

to learn about character development through social-emotional learning. The

introduction lessons in both websites state the objectives clearly. Students must learn

to define character traits and differentiate between direct and indirect characterization.

On the other hand, Lopezs introduction lesson goes deeper into a character analysis

by also focusing on static versus dynamic characters as well as it including the

definitions of internal versus external conflicts, complication, and motivation that a

character must deal with. Another introduction that I would use is a short video on

making inferences on Youtube and a Modern Family episode showing conflict.

The graphic organizers in readwritethink.com and Scholastic enable students

to mind map and classify ideas for Holes and The Giver in order for them to begin

thinking about character development. On the other hand, my approach would be to

introduce the students to concept maps, such as bubblz.com, www.lucidchart.com or

Google Docs (filedrawing) to map out the character traits that describe the

character with evidence from the text. First, I would show them an example before I

randomly assign students in pairs. After students create a concept map, they can

further elaborate by filling out the chart below in small groups of threes or fours.

They could either do this on chart paper or via Google Docs.

Physical Description Action/Behavior

Quote from the text and page number:

Quote from the text and page number:

Dialogue/speech

Quote from the text and page number:

Narration

Quote from the text and page number:

As for the third lesson in StoryboardThat, the graphic organizers were uncreative. A

fun formative task that would work well for EAL students would be a comic app

called phrase.it or they have the option of sketching and coloring a storyboard on

chart paper.

In readwritethink.com, one of the objectives was to teach students better word

choice about character traits. The resources and methods as I described in Part 1 were

quite conventional. Research shows that students do not learn vocabulary words by

simply looking up words in Merriam Webster dictionary and memorizing the

meanings or putting them into meaningful sentences. In what was supposed to be an

interactive lesson, Becoming the Character, students had to list ten adjectives that

would describe the characters they became. My spin on this would be to use

vocabgrabber.com that would map out related words or synonyms to a word.

The lessons are scaffolded with regards to concept maps, enriching

vocabulary, and collaborative work. Again, the main approach is the social-emotional

learning that I plan to incorporate in character analysis. I found an interesting lesson

in Edutopia. Vogel gives an example about The Giver, a novel that I teach in seventh

grade English. She suggests a strategy called Heads Together for students to talk

about their feelings in relation to the reading. They can begin by asking the basic

reading comprehension questions using the 5Ws question model and then move on to

more complex class discussions that involve critical thinking. Vogel gives another

example of an SEL lesson. If, in their language arts class, theyre reading a story

where the main character is having a conflict with somebody, you can say, What do

we have here? We have a conflict. Did the character deal with it the right away?

How do you think these characters are feeling? (2008). These types of questions

initiate productive class discussions if strategies are put in place.

I would use the fishbowl activity, whereby a small group of students sit in the

inner circle and discuss relevant questions about the conflicts that characters deal

with. The students in the outer circle may not engage in the discussion. One student

in the outer circle could be the reporter of the flow of the conversation while the rest

of the students in the outer circle listen to the dialogue. They could observe and take

notes about the verbal and non-verbal communication as students engage in a

discussion about the characters. I expect the students to have a heated exchange as

they move on to personal examples about how they would act in similar experiences.

After a thirty-minute discussion, the class can be divided into smaller groups of four

or five in order for the observers to ask for clarification on comments, but they are not

allowed to judge the fishbowl students. Then after thirty minutes, the whole class

regroups and has a discussion about how the fishbowl students felt about the

discussion and whether the observers found it challenging to remain passive in the

discussion.

References

Gardner, T. (n.d.). Action is Character: Exploring Character Traits with Adectives.

Retrieved July 16, 2015, from http://www.readwritethink.org/.../action-character-exploring-character-175.html Lopez, E. (n.d.). Responding to Literature: Character Analysis. Retrieved July 16,

2015, from http://www.scholastic.com/.../responding-literature--character-

analysis

Ray, R. (n.d.). Character Mapping: Put a Face to the Name with a Character Map!

Retrieved July 16, 2015.

Weissberg, R., & Cascarino, J. (2013, October 1). Academic Learning Social

Emotional Learning = National Priority: Policy Makers Need to Understand

What Researchers and Educators Already Know: Social-Emotional Learning

Helps Create More Engaging Schools and Prepares Students for the Challenges

of the W. Phi Delta Kappan, 8-13.