Rena ToutounjiSCED 663 Advanced TrendsAssignment #3: Content Area Teaching IdeasDr. 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.orgAction is Character: Exploring Character Traits with Adjectiveshttp: www.storyboardthat.comCharacter Mapping The Boys from Camp Green Lakehttp: 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 Trend1) DefineA 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 StrategiesMy 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 DescriptionQuote from the text and page number:

Action/BehaviorQuote from the text and page number:

Dialogue/speechQuote from the text and page number:

NarrationQuote 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.

ReferencesGardner, 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- analysisRay, 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.