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Inquirylessonplan Secondaryenglish Cassiepontiusmichealbarkerhamm-2
Inquirylessonplan Secondaryenglish Cassiepontiusmichealbarkerhamm-2
What are the most important traits authors should reveal when
introducing a new character?
Grade: 7
Overall Goal: In groups of three students will be analyzing and researching the literary devices
used by a specific author to introduce a new character/narrator into their works. Students should
be able to pull out specific annotations from the texts of their assigned author in order to make
an argument for which character traits are most important. Once the evidence is collected,
students will create a powerpoint presentation in which they present their findings to other
members of the class. Once gathering information from all of the presentations, students will
compare each author and form an argument about the most important traits for introducing a new
character.
7.W.3.3 Engage and orient the Students should be able to Students will write a
reader by establishing a context compare and contrast how blog post in which
and point of view and different authors introduce they interpret the
introducing a narrator and/or new characters and/or work of a variety of
characters. narrators into their work. authors and argue,
Students should be able to based on evidence,
form a strong argument as to which traits are most
which methods are most important for the
effective for introducing a introduction of a
new character into a piece. new character.
The instructor begins by breaking the class up into groups. In groups, each student will select
another student from the group without telling the others who they chose, and will try to make
the rest of the group guess who they chose by describing them as an author would introduce a
new character. The students should use descriptors that go beyond the obvious (physical) world,
i.e. the individuals attitude, personality, behavior, etc.
After the activity, the instructor will ask the following discussion questions:
1. What sort of descriptors worked better than others in leading the class to guess the
selected person?
2. Do you think it's easier or harder to describe someone without describing how they look?
Why or why not?
3. If you had to do this activity again, do you think it would be better to spend some time
getting to know each member of your group before we start the activity?
Lesson Main:
Introduce the Central Question: After the grabber activity, the instructor should introduce the
central question: What are the most important traits authors should reveal when introducing a
new character? Why? The grabber activity should have engaged everyone in the lesson by this
point.
Content Lecture: After discussion of the central question, the instructor should provide an
overview of the content and the activity as a whole (see created resource below). The instructor
will go through the presentation, making sure the students have a general understanding of how
the rest of the lesson will proceed.
Group Research: Now, the instructor should break the students up into small groups of three to
four to begin their research on different authors and the way they introduce characters. The
instructor should ensure that each group member is actively participating in the research (i.e.,
each student should be contributing to the research, all students should be participating in the
group discussion). Each group will be given a list of authors to choose from (see created resource
below), but are free to research any authors that they may be familiar with beyond the list. Using
the guided research packet (see created resource below), the students should gather information
on different authors styles by keeping track of quotes and passages that highlight each authors
style. The students should constantly be thinking in terms of how their authors are both similar
and different in their character introductions as they prepare to create their final presentations.
Creating Research Presentations: Now the students should develop their presentation that
shows their answer to the central question. The format for their presentation will remain up to
them, so long as they address each part of the central question in a clear, concise, and
well-organized manner.
Lesson Ending:
Presentation Day: The students will now have the opportunity to present their final product to
the class. Presentations should clearly demonstrate that they have a firm grasp of the way
different authors introduce their characters, and that they are able to articulate these different
styles and the differences / similarities between them.
Resources / Artifacts:
Ebook:
Overview of content
Step by step instructions for project
https://read.bookcreator.com/J7pGQhTcDNNBLv6FEVbe6V8Bzca2/FKOgzSThSO6I3iC7bYdugQ
Sutori Presentation
Example of what would be expected of the students
https://www.sutori.com/story/j-k-rowling-maya-angelou
Differentiation:
Anticipated Difficulties:
A few of the main difficulties that may arise with this project include a possible difficulty accessing
the technology needed to complete the project. If there are students that do not have access to
technology, we would be willing to work out the possibility of creating a poster presentation
rather than a powerpoint, or allowing students to work on a staff computer before or after school.
Another challenge may include one student taking on the workload of the entire project. The
purpose of the blog post is to prevent this from occurring since students will have to pull ideas for
this section individually. However, if a student is still unable to cooperate for group work
activities, said student may be asked to do the project alone to assure that they are drawing the
necessary conclusions from the project.