Example 1

Sample Activities For Use in Class

1. Tense Texts: Creating Characters Who Feel Two Ways at Once

Make up three batches of index cards. Two batches should contain about ten cards, and the third should contain about twenty. On one of the two batches of ten cards, list general phrases describing a person, such as “a 16-year-old soccer player,” “a doctor and mother of two,” or “a superstitious mail carrier.” On the second batch of ten cards, list simple settings, such as “a neighbor’s garage sale,” “a home office,” or “a supermarket on Thanksgiving.” On the batch of twenty cards, list emotions or motivations, such as “scared,” “wants to be famous,” “wants to escape the current setting at all costs,” or “scared of strangers.”

Split students into groups and have each group draw one card from each of the stacks of ten cards and two cards from the stack of twenty. (That’s a total of four cards - one person, one setting, and two emotions or motivations). Give students 20-30 minutes to create a short story or skit in their groups that shows the person, in the setting, dealing with both emotions or motivations at the same time. If the students can resolve their character’s conflicting motivations in the story or skit, they may, but it’s not necessary.

Once time is up, reconvene the class and have each group share its story or skit. The rest of the class should watch/listen, then discuss who the character appears to be, what his or her motivations are, and how the audience can tell. Students in the audience should feel free to suggest dialogue or plot twists that would reveal the character’s emotions or motivations more quickly.

Students should focus on “showing” as much as possible, so you may want to prohibit them from repeating the specific phrases on the cards. For instance, instead of saying “Dr. Smith was a doctor and mother of two, who is sitting in her home office trying to figure out how to become famous while also being afraid of strangers,” students might write, “Dr. Smith gazed hopelessly at the photographs of her young son and daughter that sat on her desk. Today, she had tried, for the seventeenth time, to give a talk show interview about the importance of eating well, which was a topic she was well-known for studying, thanks to her two best-selling books. Unfortunately, television fame had escaped her grasp again when, terrified of a talk show host she had never met before, her mind went completely blank.”

Example 2

2. Character Development in Texts

Have students read the following poem by E.A. Robinson (or one similar to it):

Withal a meagre man was Aaron Stark, --
Cursed and unkempt, shrewd, shrivelled, and morose.
A miser was he, with a miser's nose,
And eyes like little dollars in the dark.
His thin, pinched mouth was nothing but a mark;
And when he spoke there came like sullen blows
Through scattered fangs a few snarled words and close,
As if a cur were chary of its bark.

Glad for the murmur of his hard renown,
Year after year he shambled through the town, --
A loveless exile moving with a staff;
And oftentimes there crept into his ears
A sound of alien pity, touched with tears, --
And then (and only then) did Aaron laugh.

- Edward Arlington Robinson, “Aaron Stark”

Then, in whatever format you choose (groups, class discussion, worksheet, essay, etc.), have students discuss questions like the following:

-What sort of person is Aaron Stark? (Possible Answers: He’s a mean old man who’s secretly proud of his callousness and possible cruelty, as well as his “miserly” ways. He’s spent many years developing this reputation.)

-What clues in the text point to these qualities about Aaron Stark? (Possible Answers: He’s described as “Cursed and unkempt, shrewd, shrivelled, and morose,” he’s described as a “miser,” he snarls at people when they ask him questions instead of answering politely, and he laughs when he hears other people crying.)

When the poem describes Aaron Stark as a “miser,” does it mean only that he’s tight with money, or does it mean he’s “miserly” in some other ways? (Possible Answers: His snarling, clipped responses and laughter when someone else is crying indicate he’s also, perhaps chiefly, “miserly” with his time and attention to other people and with his compassion for them.)

Does Aaron Stark appear to have any conflicting motivations, and if so, what are they? (Possible Answers: The poem doesn’t really say, but it’s possible to picture Aaron Stark as someone who became “shrivelled” mentally and emotionally due to some past incident when he was deeply hurt - perhaps he would not laugh at other people’s tears if he wasn’t secretly grateful they were suffering like he once had.)

Quiz 1 Questions

Quiz 2 Questions