Katharine M. Liphardt
Weeks One and Two
In week one and two, the class will be introduced to the concepts of theme, tone, point of view, and author's purpose. Over that time a variety of texts will be used to show different tones or voices, as well as purposes of individual texts. Students will understand that every piece of writing is written with a specific purpose in mind. That idea will be carried over to their own writing. The idea of theme will also be introduced to help the class identify messages that are woven throughout a text. To introduce theme and tone, picture books and music are appropriate and often easy for students to identify with.
Tone will be defined as a way of expressing feelings or attitudes that will influence how the reader feels about character, events, and outcomes of the story. The distinction will be made that writers only have words to use to express tone, while speakers have voice tone and gestures. It is helpful to provide examples of both voice tone and gestures. Once the students see this modeled, they can then begin to consider how this could be translated into writing. Brainstorming possibilities as a group and then looking for examples in the text helps to make this difficult concept more approachable. While we read our text, students keep an on going log of phrases, focusing on word choice, that help them to identify specific examples of tone.
Theme will be defined as the main idea, or message of an essay, paragraph, or a book. The message(s) may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes may be implied rather than stated explicitly. To introduce the concept of theme I use picture books because they are shorter and contain many themes. Using music is also an effective way to practice identifying themes. Students in the middle grades love music and they relate to it easily. Little do they know that what they are actually relating to are the themes within the lyrical story. I will play a song and also have the students bring in their favorite songs to play for the class and as a whole group we identify themes within the songs. Using something they can relate to and enjoy helps them to "buy in" to the concepts more easily. Again, it is a fun and relevant way to introduce a concept that is difficult. After these activities with music and picture books, we can begin to identify themes and tone within our core novel.
We will also look at point of view and analyze who is telling a story and how things would be changed by a different point of view. Connecting point of view to author's purpose should help solidify these major elements for the class. If the students begin to consider why an author might choose to write a story from a specific point of view, their understanding of the plot events should deepen from taking a more analytical approach. Point of view will be easy to examine in No More Dead Dogs because of its structure. This structure is evident as soon as you begin reading the text. We can discuss how these multiple view points affect our understanding of the story. As a class we can discuss why Gordon Korman might have chosen this structure for the book. The students need to understand that the author had a purpose and it is our job to try and figure that out. Another higher level thinking activity for this book is to have the students consider how the book would be different if it was not structured with multiple points of view. I have the students take random chapters and briefly write or discuss how those chapters would change if they were from another point of view.
Weeks one and two contain a lot of big concepts, but introducing them with mini-lessons prior to the reading of the core novel will really help the students to be able to best understand the text. Once these concepts are introduced, preferably in these engaging ways, they should not have to be revisited as often. I found that these approaches enabled the students to really internalize the concepts and they were successful.
Weeks Three and Four
During these weeks students will analyze characterization, make inferences, and make connections to text, self and the world around them. The first thing that needs to be done in regard to traits is differentiating between a trait and a feeling. Students need to understand that traits describe the "type" of person someone is, whereas feelings portray a mood at a given time that is not consistent. I always use the example of how I may feel sad one day but that does not make me a sad person. If this distinction is not made, the students will invariably assign traits such as, happy, mad, etc.., to characters. We look carefully at traits and we transfer what we know about traits and how we assign traits to people in the real world and to characters in a text. In order to develop an understanding of character, the class will assign traits to characters, also providing support from the text. It is important that the students know that they have to provide evidence for the traits they assign. They will keep track of these traits and support in the Reader's Notebooks (or any other system you have in place) and as the story progresses they are able to monitor change among the characters.
Along with character and traits, students will need to focus on making inferences. The class will be able to differentiate between what is explicitly stated and what is implied and then be able to form supported opinions and conclusions based on that information. Students will need to learn how to question the text and then come up with their own answers based on what they have read in the text. They will ask questions such as, "what is the author really trying to tell us about this character?" or "What do his or her actions say about who the character really is?" It is helpful to probe these sorts of questions to the class at first. After analyzing some actions of the characters I will ask the class, "What type of person would do this?" This really leads to rich discussions about reputations and stereotypes. The students see that the actions of the character lead to theories about the character.
This segues nicely into making connections. Being that No More Dead Dogs takes place in a middle school setting, it is very easy for the students to make general connections an that is a great way to introduce connections. As the book progresses the goal becomes making deeper connections to the character as a person. Often my students make very weak connections, focusing solely on events and experiences that they can directly share with a character. Throughout the story I have them keep a chart of instances where they connected with a character. As a group we analyze and share these examples until they are able to deepen the connections that they make. Unlike our study of traits, when connecting I do have the students focus on the feelings of the character. Better connections are made when the students can relate to how the character feels instead of what the character has done. Being that I work in an inner city, it is often difficult for my students to directly relate to the experiences of characters in most stories. The students will initially claim that they can not connect to the characters because they haven't "done" the same things. This is why it is important to preface with the idea of connecting to the characters feelings about events, situations and experiences. They are also encouraged to make connections to the world around them and with other texts.
Weeks Five and Six
These weeks will be spent choosing the culminating activity of their choice and following specific rubrics to complete the assignments successfully. Over the course of these two weeks, students will draft, edit, revise, and publish a final piece of work. Depending on the needs of the students this process could take more time.
During these final two weeks of the unit, students will be asked to apply the skills they have learned to complete a written analysis of a character. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. The students can choose a compare/contrast essay, in which they compare/contrast either two different characters or two different novels focusing on character. Students can also choose to complete a character sketch on a main character from a novel. Finally, students can choose to write about how a story would be different if the point of view were changed. In each choice students will be required to include support and examples from the text, as well as provide their own inferences. I feel it is important to provide students with a variety of options, for them to be able to pick an assignment that they feel they can be successful with.