Jacqui BattsLesson Plan # 4Week 6, Day 3
Characterization in Their Eyes Were Watching God
Time: This class meets Monday through Friday for 50 minutes
Setting: The setting for this class can be found under the Student Population link; however
today’s class takes place in the computer lab.
Theory in Practice Background
For this lesson, it was my goal to focus on characterization, because at this point not
including A Thousand Splendid Suns, the students had been introduced to a slew of characters
and I think it very important that there is some in-depth character analysis in order to understand
the story. In fact, although he was referring to plays, Burke says that stories are ‘character
driven’ and I choose to believe the same about the novels that we read. The first part of the
activity in this lesson stems straight from Burkes, The English Teacher’s Companion, in which
students pick a character and a slew of quotes from that one character and decipher what those
quotes mean. According to Burke, this activity in particular teaches “students to read from
multiple perspectives, to see a character and, we hope, other people from different angles and
thereby understand how complex we all are”. (Burke p. 75)
I hope that students will also make these connections, because even in fiction, characters
still have real motivations and if they are good character’s (which Hurston’s are) they are
relatable. After speaking to one of my group members about this novel, she said that she doesn’t
like books written in dialogue because she could not relate. I was upset with her not just for her
refusal to give the book a chance, but also because her exact words called this novel a ‘dialect
book’. Like there weren’t themes and real substance to the novel, it was just a dialect book. Just
as Lippi-Green refers to the conversation surrounding accented speech as an implicit ‘judgmental
tone’ where especially in this instance the sentiment was “quite evident even without the heavily
significant choice of saying there is a mispronunciation of words”. (Lippi-Green p.58) I was
extremely offended, and it reminded me that accent and word choice can definitely serve as a
barrier to the actual substance of a novel, if people cannot get past it. Lippi-Green, goes on to
refer to the psychological block and preconceived notions that accompany accented English. I
did not want these prejudices to impede anyone’s ability to accept the characters as real,
relatable, and complex. I was eerily reminded of all of our linguistic discussions about language
and how words can hurt, because we are so critically judged by the words that we use. So much
so that, “language can create and destroy social connections” (Curzan p. 5). I have never seen the
language in this novel as distracting or deterring, but then again I guess I am fluent in African
American English, but was it possible that the dialogue served as a barrier that destroyed the
social connections people could make with the text? I hoped not, in fact my lesson was a
testament of me attempting to prove otherwise. So, for this lesson I decided to use Burke’s
activity where students will directly deal with the text in order to not only decipher it, but also
pull meaning from it, because there is meaning in this novel and although the dialogue is
instrumental there is definitely more than that to it. Hopefully by analyzing the specific language
used by each character, like Burke suggests students will be able to use the language (instead of
letting it be a barrier) in order to relate to the characters and see the story from a different
perspective.
Objectives
Student will analyze the speech of specific characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God
Students will examine character’s rationale by examining a set amount of quotes.
Students will make modern day connections to the rationale revealed by their character analysis
Materials
24 copies of Their Eyes Were Watching God
24 target notes worksheets
Access to the computer lab
24 computers
Preparation
For this lesson, students will have to read up till chapter 8 (which was already assigned)
and I will have to make sure that I reserve the computer lab so that we can use the computers.
Students will also have to make sure they bring their copy of Their Eyes Were Watching God, to
class that day. I will make sure that I make 24 copies of the Target note worksheet. Students will
know the day before that class will take place in the computer lab today, but I will prepare and
post a note on the door anyway for students who forgot or were absence and show up at class.
Procedure
Discussion about characterization/Directions (10 minutes)
First we will have a small recap on characterization. This discussion will review things we as a
class already know about characterization, but serve as a reminder about how we use the actions,
choices, descriptions and speech of a character to understand their traits and make judgments
about them. Then I will take 2-3 minutes to explain the activities that we will be doing today.
Character Wheel (25 minutes)
On the target note sheet, each student will pick one character and write their name in the middle
of the circle. Around the circle students must pick 5 related quotes said by that character. The
quotes must all reveal something significant about the character or their choices. If students
finish earlier than the allotted time, students will share and discuss the quotes they chose for their
characters, if not, we will be going over their character profiles tomorrow anyway.
Create Fake book pages (15 minutes)
Since we are already in the computer lab, students will not have to move anywhere and simply
just use their character analysis to create fake book (educational Facebook program) profiles for
their characters. Their profile will indicate who they would be friends with, and they could also
indicate relationship status, and their likes. In addition to creating the profile, students also have
to make 5 fake book statuses using the 5 quotes, although they don’t have to use the exact
wording from the book, they can use short hand, and slang, like they normally would in a
Facebook status. (More like, what if their characters were in modern society and had a Facebook
account what would their posts say?) After completing their profiles every student has to
comment on 5 of their classmates walls. If they do not have time to do this in class, it is
homework; we will look at some of the fake book pages in class tomorrow in class.
Discussion Questions:
What is a round character?
What makes a protagonist? Antagonist?
Who is the antagonist in this novel? Could there be more than one? Why?
What traits do we look for when characterizing a person from a novel?
Bilingual/ESL Accommodations
Unfortunately I do not believe Their Eyes Were Watching God is translated into Spanish
or Arabic, and since the dialogue in this novel is particularly difficult I will make sure I give
these students chapter by chapter summaries of what is happening, and maybe I can find the
summaries at least in their native language. Prior to this lesson we will be listening to audio
versions of the book, and I know that hearing good reading increases fluency, so hopefully that
will be beneficial to my students. Either way I will use the extensive class time they have to
work on this assignment to have one on one time to work with these students. As far as the fake
book pages, they are not able to be translated into any other languages, but there is a tutorial
video that students can watch at their own pace, and I will allow my classroom to be available all
day for students to come in, if they need extra time or extra help from me, so that they can use
this class time to watch the tutorial and become familiar with the fake book program This will be
really beneficial for students because they will have the option to re-play it if they do not
understand and they can always refer back to it, and although it will be in English, they can set
the pace at what they learn from the video, and there are plenty of visuals that show what you do
to your computer screen. If they are not familiar with shorthand or how to create informal
English for their fake book pages, that is fine, however they want to represent their character is
fine as long as it’s textually supported.
Special Education Accommodations
For my student who has high functioning autism, he might also have trouble deciphering
the dialogue in this novel as well, so I will make sure to supply him also with the chapter-by-
chapter summaries for Their Eyes Were Watching God. Another concern that I might have for
him, is not just his knowledge of how to make the fake book page, but also I am not sure how
well he will be knowledgeable and receptive to a social networking website. I might again give
him a worksheet, explaining what social networking websites are, and the url so he can go
through it the day before and be prepared when we go into the lab. I have a feeling that once he
becomes familiar with the website, that he will really like it because I feel that it is a social venue
that he can excel in. He can participate socially without being put on the spot, (you have time to
edit and change your interactions with ‘friends’ online) and be given time to respond to
conversations and events taking place on online. Otherwise, I would probably require him to
watch the tutorial video, and he would be able to come into my class as well through out the day
and use my computers in class and request help from me, if he spends the majority of time in
class watching the video.
Assessment
I will look at the students’ target worksheets in which they actually analyze the meaning
of the quotes, in order to assess their work on character analysis. I will pay attention not just to
the meaning they decipher from the quotes that they choose, but I will also evaluate the quotes
that they choose, as in how they are related and what they reveal about the character. I will also
use their fake book pages that they create to assess the connections the students are making with
the characters by seeing how they put the character in a modern arena like Facebook. Lastly, I
will see how they each interact with each other’s character to not only assess their analysis of the
one character that they did a wheel for, but also to see how they understand the relationships
between characters.
Extension Ideas
Well, to extend the conversation of characterization, tomorrow our lesson will be writing
a letter. Specifically students will have to write a letter to the character they analyzed today
persuading the character that one decision they have made was a good or bad idea. Incorporating
the fake book pages the students created today, we will present them in class tomorrow and then
have a conversation about audience and how writing changes when audiences’ change. This will
explain why the informal and short hand language they used today in their fake book posts was
acceptable for fake book, but not for the letters we will be writing tomorrow.
Source of Activity
This activity came specifically out of Burke’s The English Teacher’s Companion, in
which he made students analyze the characters in Othello; I simply applied it to the characters in
the Their Eyes Were Watching God. I also wanted to figure out a way to incorporate technology
into this lesson as well and after visiting my cooperating teacher from my upcoming student
teaching placement, I saw how he utilized fake book in his teaching of the crucible, and I thought
it was a really cool resource that students could not only learn from, but be eager to use.
Resources and References
Burke, Jim. The English Teacher's Companion: a Complete Guide to Classroom, Curriculum, and the Profession. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.
Curzan, Anne, and Michael Adams. How English Works: a Linguistic Introduction. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print.
Fakebook.net. Classtools.net. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. <http://classtools.net/fb/home/page>.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: a Novel. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.
Watt, D. "Book Reviews: English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States: Rosina Lippi-green (1997) London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-11477-2. Pp.286." International Journal of Bilingualism 3.4 (1999): 434-39. Print.
Standards
1.B.2c Relate literary works and their characters, settings and plots to current and historical
events, people and perspectives.
With the creation of student’s fake book pages, they will have to relate their characters
directly to their perspective, as they insert their character into a social network that many of them
already belong to. They will have to think of the way they themselves update Facebook statuses,
and depending on what type of ordeal their character is going through what kind of status they
would post.
2.B.3c Analyze how characters in literature deal with conflict, solve problems and relate to real-
life situations.
Through students’ target worksheets, they will decipher what event or scenes are most
significant to their character’s development and this could include important decisions characters
have made or how they dealt with, solved, or created conflict. It’s really up to the students’ to
decide what factors go into choosing the quotes that best reflect significant events or decisions of
that character, but ideally good responses will include how characters handle conflict.
1.C.4b Explain and justify an interpretation of a text.
This is done most specifically through deciphering the dialogue of their character. The
assignment does not call for a simple mundane translation of what the characters are saying, but
instead an interpretation of what the quote reveals about the character and their choices or
responses to events or conflicts.
Target NotesDirections: On this chart you will use the middle circle to indicate which character from Their Eye’s Were Watching God, you will do your analysis for. Then pick 5 related quotes (they go in the inner circle) that reveal something about those characters or their decisions. In the out circle, write your analysis of why those quotes are significant to characterization of whomever you picked.