Objective
:
To introduce the character chart.
Materials:
Guidelines to character study.
Procedure
:
In last night’s homework, you took a look at yourself. You found that in each of us lies the seeds of our own obsessions. In yesterday’s class you took a closer look at Poe’s narrator. Today, we are going to use a tool that you will become very familiar with this year. It will be used to look at ourselves even more carefully. It is a guideline to a character . . . and each of you are real characters. 1 will pass out this guideline and we will have some fun with it.
Pass out guidelines. Tell students they are to break up into pairs within their small groups. They are to then take turns filling out the character chart on each other. 20 minutes.
Class
discussion
:
After this activity is completed discuss some of the questions students may have. Ask students to think about Poe’s narrator. Did Poe fill out his character chart. What items are missing? What are present? Does the fact that Poe is describing a “state of mind” make the physical characteristics that are lacking understandable?
Closure
:
We have seen that each of us is a potential character and that most writers make their character move and live within the traits that are given them. A good story uses these traits, one that doesn’t follow through on the character-s characteristics just doesn‘t ring true.
Homework
:
You are to take another guideline home. This time you are to make up a character using this guideline. Fill out each and every item. This character must be completely imaginary. You will find out that once you have filled out the chart on your imaginary character—a short story is not far behind.
