Day 107: Character Changes

1. Quickwrite. Students answered the following question on a sheet of notebook paper: How do you know when you’ve become an adult? Is it when you begin to be treated a certain way by others? Is it something within you that tells you? Students wrote for 5 minutes

We took one minute to share our answers in groups then shared 4 or 5 answers as a whole class.

2. Character Changes & Plot Summary. Students discussed Reading Log 3 and 4, especially the changes the character goes through. They continued working on their Plot Summary and Character List. We spent 10-15 minutes making sure all groups had written through “Summary #4.

3. Changes. All groups discussed the three major changes they noted in their protagonists. Then, they decided which change was most significant. The group or individual then summarized that change on a sticky note. All students then placed a sticky note on the board under one of the key categories of change in a bildungsroman:

• innocence -> experience a.k.a. naivete -> realism
• dependence -> independence
• narcissism -> selflessness

4. “The Freshmen.” We listened to The Verve Pipe’s 1996 hit about coming of age:

As students listened they marked the lyrics that showed youth, adulthood, and trauma (which often brings about change).

5. Poems about Coming of Age. Some classes started reading one of the following poems they chose:

• At 14 by Don Welch
• If– by Rudyard Kipling
• Theme for English B by Langston Hughes
• The Empty Glass by Louise Gluck

If time, students annotated the poems in three steps:

3. Finally, in a different colored pen / pencil, annotate the poem for possible connections to your bildungsroman.

HW: Reading #5 and Reading Log 5 due Monday. Finish book by Wednesday.