Sanny's Lesson Plan on Characterisation

Characteristics of students:
Secondary one (Express)

Mix of average and low ability students

Predominantly visual and kinesthetic learners

Class size:

30 students

Duration of lesson:
80 minutes (2 periods)

Lesson topic:

Characterisation

Resources required:

1) Extract from the Play “The Recognition of Sakuntala” by Kalidasa (In student’s textbook)

2) Mahjong paper and marker pens

3) List of adjectives to aid students with characterisation

Pre-requisite knowledge:

1) Students had a previous lesson to introduce them to characterization and are aware of what is expected (point, evidence, elaboration).

2) Students have previously worked on the extract and are familiar with it.

Lesson objective:
Students will practise the skills of characterisation through identification of points and supporting them with textual evidence and elaboration.

Lesson Plan:

5 minutes

1) Teacher recaps previous lesson on characterisation and connects it to this lesson.

2) Teacher shares briefly the lesson program and activities for the day.

10 minutes

To model characterisation, teacher uses an example of a character that the students are familiar with - Dawan from “Sing to the Dawn”

1) Teacher writes the following three big headings on the board:

a) Point

b) Evidence

c) Elaboration

2) Teacher ask students to give an adjective to describe Dawan and writes it under “Point”

3) Teacher prompts students to provide a piece of evidence to substantiate that point and writes it under “Evidence”.

4) Teacher prompts students to provide elaboration. If students are unable to (since they are new to it), the teacher will model one for them.

Example*:

POINT	EVIDENCE	ELABORATION
Dawan is mature	She accepted that her chances of winning the scholarship were low simply because she is a girl.	Dawan continued to work hard even though she knew her chances for further education were low. Her refusal to be defeated reflects her maturity and love for education.

* Teacher leaves example on the board for students to refer to when coming up with their own characterisation.

10 Minutes

1) Teacher checks understanding with students before breaking class up into 6 groups of 5.

2) Teacher briefs class about their group tasks.

- Each group will be randomly assigned a character from the extract to work on. Since there are three main characters in the play, two groups will study the same character.

- For each character, the group has to come up with 3 characterisation points, support each point with at least 1 evidence from the extract, and top it off with a short elaboration.

- Students are to represent their findings on a mahjong paper.

- Students will share their findings with the class.

20 minutes

1) Students participate in group work.

2) Teacher will walk around the classroom to make sure that students are on track and to help with questions.

20 minutes
1) Each group to share their findings verbally and visually (mahjong paper) with the class.

2) Teacher/students are free to ask questions or clarify any parts of the sharing.

The objective of this sharing session is…

a) For the teacher to clarify any misconceptions about characterisation with the class

b) For students to model characterisation for one another.

c) As the extract is one of the text for the exams, students can jot down notes during the sharing which they can use for revision.

10 minutes

1) Teacher sums up lesson by sharing some learning points from the activity pertaining to characterisation.

2) Address any concerns/questions regarding the topic.

3) Prompt students to think and share about the function of characterisation in their daily lives. (eg. that we all engage in it in our daily social interactions without realising it. In other words, make Literature alive for the kids!)

4) Lastly, distribute the list of adjectives to students and tell them to use it to expand the variety of adjectives they can use when characterising.

Lesson Rationale –

To be honest, this was a text I taught during my contract teaching. It was targeted at four express and two NA classes. As the students were behind time, I had no choice but to rush through the characterisation part so that they could pass their literature end-of-year exam. I found it quite unfortunate that their one and only lesson on characterisation involved frantic word-for-word copying of my prepared answers. (I had no choice…there REALLY was no time!).

So if given another opportunity to teach characterisation, I would conduct the lesson as described in my lesson plan above. I want to make it fun and engaging for my students, to sought their opinion of a character instead of prescribing it to them (which I was unfortunately guilty of!) As a literature student, I always enjoyed doing charactisation as it was not restrictive and I was free to analyze the character from every angle, like a detective!

In the summary of the lesson, one important component is for the teacher to connect the skills of characterisation with real-world context, in other words, make it alive for the students. By showing them that characterisation is a big part of social interactions and communications, it highlights the relevance of this topic and elevates Literature beyond of the four walls of a classroom. I believe that this is the function of Literature, or in this case, characterisation, to enable students to view others with fairness and objectivity, backed up by evidence and not coloured by their own bias perspectives. I believe that curriculum subjects have the power to teach these important values to students, and that is essentially how students should learn them, not only through CME classes where such values may be too explicitly taught.

I chose a secondary one audience because learning the skills of characterisation is foundational to the study of literature. Through characterisation, students will be able to understand the text better since the character’s behavior/actions will make more sense if they understand the his/her personality/motives. Dealing with Secondary 1 students who are of low to average ability, literature is not only new to them, but some or most of them may not even have a strong grasp of the English language. Therefore, this text is suitable for teaching characterisation since it is relatively short and easy to understand as the characters are engaging in dialogue. (It is a play after all!)

Freire mentioned that as teachers, we should “never provide the people with programs which have little or nothing to do with their own preoccupations, doubts, hopes and fears.” To me, Freire is simply saying that if the activities and lessons teachers are conducting in class does not connect with the concerns of the students, it has little or no value except to fulfill the requirement of the curriculum. The curriculum and culture of testing is not always something teachers can change, but how we as teachers adapt and turn these lessons into something bigger that students can relate to in their daily lives, that is what makes the difference between a dead or living subject.

Freire goes on to explain that it is important not just to share “our own view” and impose that view onto others, but rather to engage in dialogue with them “about their views and ours.” Group work encourages this view. The same lesson on charactisation could be done with each individually sharing their own views, however, by grouping them together to come to an agreement on their arguments, it is an opportunity for them to share their views and listen to other perspectives. In the midst of group discussion, usually the most objective arguments will prevail since no one can truly argue against an objective assessment. Therefore it meets the intention of characterisation in the Literature context and beyond that, a value that students should adopt in their social interactions with others.

Lastly, Freire also wrote about the importance of dialogue in education, that it both requires and generates critical thinking, communication and therefore, true education. Unfortunately, teachers often understand dialogue as solely talking to the students. A true dialogue cannot function without gathering feedback through listening and refection. When teachers prompt and ask students for their opinion and feelings to a subject/topic, students are actually contributing to their own and the education of their classmates. This component takes place through the sharing of findings by the groups.