Characterization Writing Lesson

Unit Title: Respect: How do we do it?

Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): Respect

Unit Primary Skill focus: Personal Writing

Week __2__ of 3; Plan #_____5___ of 9; [90 mins.]

Plan type: _X_ Full-Detail ____Summary

Content Requirement Satisfied:

(Note: Refer to the list in the document called Concept Unit Lesson Plans)

Unit Learning Objectives (numbered) [from my Backwards Design Unit Document],

followed by Specific lesson objectives (lettered) being taught in this lesson:

SWBAT:
Cognitive (know/understand):
1. Respecting themselves includes respecting the work that they do.

a. Revising their work demonstrates respect for their work.

c. Progress monitoring creates ownership of material.

2. Real respect is a continuous/everyday action.

a. Reviewing another peers work requires respect for the other person.

3. Writers demonstrate value for themselves when they write about their personal

experiences.

b. Developing characters requires using important details to create an image of

the character.

d. Descriptive language can create an image for the reader.

e. Students will be able to use features of mentor texts in their own writing.

4. __Students will know the difference between disrespect and disagreement.

c. Respecting someones work means at least appreciating their work if not

enjoying it.

Affective (feel/value) and/or Non-Cognitive:

5. _Students will value being a part of a respectful classroom community.
 1. _Students will feel comfortable sharing their ideas with their classmates.

2. _Students will value their own work and that of others.

3. Respecting others helps to create a positive learning community.

Performance (do):
6. __Students will be able to demonstrate respect.
b. Students will be able to respectfully critique the work and ideas of themselves.
7.__Students will be able to identify respect as it relates to people, ideas, and literature.

C. Students will be able to ask critical questions about their own writing.

8.__ Students will be able to communicate their ideas about respect and what it means.

a. Students will be able to communicate through writing.

b. Students will be able to express their ideas orally.

SOLs: [List with numbers portrayed in the SOL document]

8.7 The student will write in a variety of forms, including narration, exposition, persuasion, and
informational.
e) Select specific vocabulary and information for audience and purpose
Common Core

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.5

With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen
writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach,
focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (Editing for
conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and
including grade 8 here.)

Methods of Assessment:
[How will you know if the intended learning occurred?] List all methods of assessment used in
this lesson or which are related to this lesson and come in a future lesson. After each assessment,
indicate in brackets the number(s) and letter(s) of the unit objective and the related lesson
objectives that the assessment is evaluating.

Diagnostic Formative Summative

Students will write their
drafts in a google doc that
they share with me. I will
look over these google docs
after the previous class
period and take notes on
student progress. I will also
check over revisions that the
Students will complete an exit
ticket that asks them to reflect
on themselves as writers.
Students will say what they
learned about themselves as
writers through the drafting
and revision process. (1c, 6b,
7c).
Their final personal piece: The
creation of and sharing of this
piece will help me see if
students understood how to use
a mentor text and how to use
adjectives and descriptions in
writing to make it more
interesting. (3bde, 8a).
 students made. I will use this
information to help me know
how much to focus on
conferences with which
students. (1a, 3bde, 5b, 6b,
7c, 8a)
As students work, I will
conference with them. I will
focus on the revision process.
I will probe students to tell me
questions that they asked to
help themselves revise their
work. I will also probe to have
students explain their process,
and I will ask them to explain
how they improve their work.
I will offer immediate
feedback. (1ac, 5abc, 6b, 7c,
8ab).
I will observe students peer
review process to understand
how students understand the
peer review process and the
respect that students are
showing for their peers work.
(2a, 4c, 5abc, 8b).

Procedures/Instructional Strategies
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]

Beginning Room Arrangement:

[Changes in this arrangement that become necessary later will be noted in the plan]
Students are arranged in pods around the room. Students can sit where they choose.
1. [10 mins.] Bridge/Hook/Opening to lesson:
Do-now: Have opening paragraph from Thank you Maam by Langston Hughes on the board
with direction: Draw a picture of the woman described in this paragraph. Then, list three things
the paragraph tells you about the woman and how that helped you make your drawing. Students
begin work on their do-now as they come in. Teacher greets students at the door.
Good morning everyone. Go ahead and get started on this Do-Now in your class notebooks.
Write the date at the top of the entry. Read the passage. Draw a picture of the woman, and tell
me why you drew her that way.
Open whole-class discussion: What did you all notice about how they characterized the
woman? Did you feel like you could picture her easily? Are you interested in this character and
learning more about her? [Switch screen to a second description of the woman. Ask how the
new information helps us understand the woman even better.] Read this new information
presented. Does this change your opinions of her? Does it add to your opinion? [Students give
answers about how it changes their opinion of the character. I will field questions and guide
discussion for about 1-2 minutes.] Thank you all for that discussion. Keep those thoughts in
mind as we move to talk a little more about what Langston Hughes was doing with this
character. When authors describe a character, its called characterization. Were going to take
notes now on characterization.
2. [20 mins.] Mini-lesson on Characterization
Characterization Intro: Difference between just listing attributes and focusing on a few
attributes. I noticed that all of your drawings of this woman were different. Whats one reason
you think that is? [Have students offer reasons: summarize by saying] Right. Hughes, the author,
did not give us a lot of information about what she looks like exactly. We know shes large. We
know she has a purse, but thats it. However, even with just that description we learned about
her. We assumed that she was pretty strong and aggressive. Maybe shes a little mean. How did
we figure all of this out? [Students respond relating it to our earlier discussion.] Exactly. We had
an image of her being really big and then beating up on this kid. We saw how she acted in
response to a situation. Then, we learned even more about her as the story progresses. You all
saw a snippet from later in the evening after she took the boy home with her and began to feed
him. We learned more about her from her actions and what she said to the boy. Do you feel like
you know this woman even just from those brief descriptions? Are you interested to meet her?
[Students respond with yes or no, and I will ask them to expand their answer.] I am also
interested to meet her. I dont know if I would be though if Langston Hughes just wrote, She was
a large woman with brown hair. She also had brown eyes. She was wearing a purple dress. She
had on one necklace and earrings that matched. She also had some rings. I dont think Id be as
interested because at that point theres not really any mystery. I like that I just hear that shes
large, and then I see her totally grab this boy by the collar and heft him off the ground. Langston
Hughes repeats her largeness and it starts to create this air of mystery. She seems large. Larger
than life maybe. Dont get me wrong, its good to know all the little details about your character,
but whats more important is to know the important details. What will interest your reader? What
makes them unique? Maybe the matching earrings and necklace reflects your characters
personality. Maybe thats the detail to focus on. What I want you to take away: write this as
Writing Tip in your notebooks: is that you should focus on the important detail(s). [I write on
board as students write in notes] What one thing makes your character unique?
Different ways of characterizing: how they look, what they say, what they do
[Students begin taking notes as prompted, and I teach and guide note-taking]. What we started to
notice when talking after our do-now is that there are different ways to think about
characterizing someone. I think the first way that usually comes to mind are the direct
characterizations: write that word in your notes: direct characterizations are when the author
tells us about them by saying what they look like and what they are like. Langston Hughes
directly characterized Luella Bates as large. There are also other ways to help a reader
understand a character. These are more indirect, so they are called indirect characterization.
You will also want to write that in your notes under direct characterization. Indirect
characterizations are when we learn about the character by observing what they say and what
they do and what other people think of them. Lets start by ways that we can directly characterize
them.
Direct characterizations:
Adjectives: One way to use direct characterization is to focus on the adjectives that you choose.
In your notes, note that adjectives are a type of direct characterization. Remind me what is a
direct characterization? [Students respond]. Adjectives are words that describe other nouns.
Pretty, ugly, important, meaningful, crazy. There are thousands of adjectives in the world, and
finding the right ones for your cause is important. You want to find the right adjectives so that
the reader is drawn to your character and really understands them. It can be overwhelming to
use lots and lots of adjectives, so you need to find a few really good ones. What word does
Langston Hughes use to describe the woman? [Students respond with the word large. If they
do not know, I will point back to our reading and discussion from the beginning]. Langston
Hughes chose the word large. Large is a pretty unimaginative word, I think. Usually I might
consider it a word that doesnt need to be used because its not very descriptive. However, I think
it works in this context because I see it like its the little boys perspective. To him, this woman is
just large and maybe there really isnt other ways that he could describe it. Now, I want to think
about how I could use this technique in my writing. My dad is a character in my memory that I
think could be good to try to characterize a little more for my readers. If I were to think of an
adjective for him, I might think grumpy. I think that term is good because then I can use the word
to show how he may seem just grumpy to some people but hes actually very nice. Take 30
seconds now to think about 1-2 adjectives you might use or already have used for a character in
your personal writing piece. [Students jot down ideas for their character in their notes].
Metaphors and similes: Sometimes finding that perfect adjective can be really hard, but you
can compare your character to something else. You can do this using a metaphor or a simile.
Does anyone know what a metaphor or a simile is? [Students will respond if they know. If they
do not know, then I will give the definition that they compare two unsimilar things.] Have you
ever heard someone called a force of nature? Thats a way to use metaphor to describe
someone. Also, sometimes people use similes to say someone is strong as an ox, or big as a barn,
or pretty as a pearl. These similes are ways to make adjectives more interesting by comparing it
to something else that will strengthen the word. Take 30 seconds now to think about how you
could use a metaphor or simile for your character. [Students think about metaphors or similes
that they can use.] Awesome work planning those ideas! Now lets talk about how what the
character says can teach us more about the character.
What they say- Dialogue: Another thing that can help us learn more about the character is
what they choose to say. We learn a lot about our friends that way too, right? If our friends say
things that we think are funny, might like them more. Reading dialogue in writing can help us
learn more about someone because it can show us how they think. What is dialogue? [Students
respond with ideas.] Dialogue is the word that means the conversations that characters have in
literature. Thinking about the topic that I chose for my personal piece, I am thinking about
something my dad might say that I think would be really telling of him. It might be something
like, Be a grizzly! He used to shout that to me to remind me to be confident and not back
down.
What they do-Action: Something that is also very telling of a person is how they act. Have you
all ever met someone who said a lot of nice things but never did anything nice?[Students
respond.] Yeah. Sometimes we think that people are nice but then realize that they dont do nice
things. Also, sometimes its the other way around! Sometimes people might say mean things but
do nice things. I think the woman that we read about did this. Ill fill you in a little more. She
scolded the boy while she took him back to her house, but she was taking him home so that he
could bathe and get some food. Her actions were really nice even though her words were sort of
harsh.
Brainstorm: Ok everyone, lets take some time to think about a character in your personal
piece. Choose one character. If you are the only character in your piece, you can choose
yourself. If there is another character in your piece, then choose them. I want you all to take 5
minutes to think about your character. I would write their name on this scrap sheet of paper Im
giving you. Some ways to brainstorm could be to write their name in the middle and around it
write adjectives and phrases to describe them. You could add things they say and do that
demonstrate their personality as well. Another way you could brainstorm is by drawing them,
and then putting some words around the edges or inside of them to help you put into words what
you think. Im going to brainstorm, too, and Im going to write dad and then put my thoughts
all around in a big storm of writing. Ok, go. [Students brainstorm their ideas for 5 minutes].
Share with elbow partner two ideas for how to characterize your character. How will you use
their actions, what they look like, or what they say? [Students share their ideas with partners. As
students share, I join conversations.]Great, Im hearing lots of ways that we can all use
adjectives and similes and metaphors and things that people say and do to help us develop our
character. Now, you all are going to work on revising or developing one of the characters in
your personal writing draft.
3. [35 mins.] Writing/Revising workshop: Character Development
Choose a character and Revise/Develop: You all have a draft of your work from last class. In
our last class, you worked on a question flood. At this point, you should have implemented your
question flood revisions. If you did, I gave you a completion grade. Now, using the brainstorm
that you just completed. Go back to your piece. Add a character description if necessary, or
improve a character description that you already have. As you work, I will be conferencing with
you all. Ok, ready go! [Students begin working on their revision. Teacher conferences with
students in order of what the diagnostic assessment suggested would be best.]
Teacher Conference Sample: Hi Roberto, how are you feeling about this writing process?
[Roberto responds, and I prompt an explanation if its not given fully.] Sometimes writing can be
hard. You are doing an awesome job putting in the work to be successful! I was looking at your
draft the last few days, and I really like how you revised it. Will you tell me a little about your
process? What did you do to revise your piece? [Student explains his process. I ask follow-up
questions if I need more information.] Now, lets talk about one of your characters. Which
character is most important to your piece? [Roberto responds]. What have you done already to
characterize, or describe him? [Roberto responds.] Lets talk about where we can go from here.
Do you think you need more details or do you need to revise the details that you have? [Roberto
chooses. If more details, we will discuss strategies for adding details such as doing the question
flood again with a focus on the character. If he needs to make his details better, I will suggest one
strategy such as using dialogue to improve the details.] Thanks for chatting! Let me know if you
need anything!
4. [20 mins] Peer Review:
Peer Review Instructions: Ok everyone! Thats time. Please taco your computers and put any
writing materials you have to the side. Thank you for your hard work on your revisions. If I did
not get to conference with you, I apologize. We can chat during lunch if you want help, or I can
check-in with you tomorrow! Now, we are going to peer review each others revisions. You will
work with the same partner as last class because they already know your work. Remind me of the
peer review cycle! [Students tell me each step of the cycle.] Great, take 30 seconds to find a spot
with your partner. Bring your draft and revision! [Students rearrange]. Ok, you have about 15
minutes! Go ahead and get started. [Students peer review. I monitor the class and take notes on
how students are using the peer review process].
5. [5 mins] Closing: Exit Ticket
Thank you all for that awesome peer review! I heard a lot of positive comments being shared. I
put an index card on your desks. Please write on this index card a few sentences about how you
feel about yourself as a writer. There are some prompts to help you on the board. Please respond
to these questions that are on the board. [Students work on their exit slip. I collect them as
students finish.]

Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:

(This is where you identify specific aspects of this lesson which have been differentiated in order
to address the needs of one or more of your profiled studentsidentify them by name)
For this project, work is already differentiated based on what students chose to write
about. Since the project is very individual, the students are working on something important to
them, which make the work differentiated.
Jamie is allowed to sit away from peers if she thinks that will help her work more. Since
this work is more individualized, she will also be allowed to take breaks when necessary. She can
have fidgets in her hands to keep quiet.
To help LaQuan, I have put him near elbow buddies who are not his friends so that he
doesnt try to hide his good work from his friends. I placed him near a high-achieving student
who I know will push him to do his best because she will offer suggestions on his piece. She will
also ask a lot of questions to see where he stands. I also talked to LaQuan about his project and
made sure it was something that he was passionate about so that he would want to do a good job
of writing it. This lesson specifically will help LaQuan because it is so individualized, he will not
feel like he has to act a certain way in front of his friends.
I told Roberto the importance of the silent independent work, so he agreed to sit away
from his friends so that he wouldnt be tempted to talk with them. He also has agreed to raise his
thumb if he gets stuck and needs a little help moving forward with his writing, spelling a word,
or just getting his thoughts together.
 I print out all of the materials for Laney so that she does not have to use a screen. If she is
not in school, I will record the class as I give instruction on quotations. I will also write a note to
her parents to see how she understands the material. I will try to communicate with her while she
is absent. I will also give her extended deadlines so that she does not have to have the stress of
working if her headaches are too bad.

Materials Needed (list):

Google Slides :
https://docs.google.com/a/virginia.edu/presentation/d/15D2AU3MjVR9k0djG_qhHD4Egs8YaZg
3Dv1vk3A9Pg10/edit?usp=sharing

Computer Paper

Conference Notes [Appendix A]

Appendix A: Conference Notes

Conference Notes

Student Name: _____________________

Date:___________________

1. Student understanding of the revision process

2. Student growth and revisions to date.

3. Student understanding of the writing lesson.

4. Student next steps