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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Preparing a character for a new job: Character analysis through job placement

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=962

A lesson plan for grade 11 English Language Arts

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In this lesson, students play the role of job counselors working at an employment agency in order to prepare their clients, who are literary characters, for interviews. Although this lesson uses The Glass Menagerie, there are examples of how to use this activity with other American novels. While modeling the assignment for students, the teacher engages them in a discussion about resumes. After students have seen several examples of resumes and are familiar with the style, they work in collaborative groups to choose a character to investigate. In the second session, students work in groups to search for direct and implied information about their characters, citing textual evidence. Then students identify strengths and weaknesses of their character, and using resources from Readwritethink, explore possible career choice for the character. After the teacher models how to write an objective for a resume, the students arrange the character’s resume information in a chosen format, making sure that any names, dates, or places connect to the plot and setting of the literary piece. Once students have completed the resume, they create ten questions that a potential employer might ask someone applying for a job and then formulate appropriate answers for the characters that they have chosen. After assembling a list of questions, students discuss how the character that they have chosen would respond to these questions. In addition to providing many helpful web resources on resume building and job interview tips, Readwritethink offers suggestions for extension activities. The lesson plan provides guidelines for the assignment, rubrics and checklists, writing tips, and several other resources for writing resumes.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 11

  • Goal 2: The learner will inform an audience by using a variety of media to research and explain insights into language and culture.
    • Objective 2.03: Respond to informational texts by:
      - using a variety of strategies for preparation, engagement, and reflection.
      - paraphrasing main ideas and supporting details present in texts.
      -explaining significant connections among the speaker's/author's purpose, tone, biases, and the message for the intended audience.
  • Goal 4: The learner will critically analyze text to gain meaning, develop thematic connections, and synthesize ideas.
    • Objective 4.01: Interpret meaning for an audience by:
      - examining the functions and the effects of narrative strategies such as plot, conflict, suspense, point of view, characterization, and dialogue.
      - interpreting the effect of figures of speech (e.g., personification, oxymoron) and the effect of devices of sound (e.g., alliteration, onomatopoeia).
      - analyzing stylistic features such as word choice and links between sense and sound.
      - identifying ambiguity, contradiction, irony, parody, and satire.
      - demonstrating how literary works reflect the culture that shaped them.
  • Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
    • Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of language by:
      - decoding vocabulary using knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin bases and affixes.
      - discerning the relationship of word meanings between pairs of words in analogies (synonyms/antonyms, connotation/denotation).
      - revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
      - contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of United States literature.
      -analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic environment, or public speaking events.
    • Objective 6.02: Discern and correct errors in speaking and writing at a level appropriate to eleventh grade by:
      - reviewing and refining purposeful use of varying sentence types with correct punctuation.
      - reviewing and refining correct pronoun usage, antecedents, and case.
      - refining subject/verb agreement and choice of tense.
      - extending effective use of phrases and clauses. - discussing parts of speech as they relate to writing.
      -editing for correct spelling and mechanics.