1. Reading Response Journals

2. Objective
By the end of the lesson, each student will be able to describe a character from the story in their reading response journals based on the thoughts, words, and actions of the character; the narrator’s description of the character; and the thoughts, words, and actions of other characters in the story.

3. Opener Answer the following question in your composition book:
After reading the story, what are 10 things you can tell me about the protagonist? Go beyond physical description and tell me about the character’s personality, thoughts, feelings, etc.

4. Opening Activity Get out your character bubble map
Choose three of your descriptive adjectives
Find a quote from the story to support each of the three adjectives that you chose.
Write them next to or below your bubble map.
If you know the difference, label each quote either “direct” or “indirect” characterization.

5. Instructional Content
Discuss opener, asking students to find evidence from the story to support their claims about the character.
Go over characterization notes in the slides that follow.
Discuss whether the textual evidence that they found to support their claims was direct or indirect.
Discuss whether they believe the character is dynamic or static.
Model the journaling process.

6. Characterization
Characterization is the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. Characterization is revealed through direct characterization and indirect characterization.

7. Types of Characterization
Direct Characterization tells the audience what the personality of the character is.
Example: “The patient boy and quiet girl were both well mannered and did not disobey their mother.”
Explanation: The author is directly telling the audience the personality of these two children. The boy is “patient” and the girl is “quiet.”
Indirect Characterization shows things that reveal the personality of a character in the following ways:
The things they say
The things they do
Through their thoughts
How they look
The way other characters react
to them

8. Types of Characters
Characters experience varying amounts of change over the course of a story.
• Static characters that do not experience basic character changes during the course of the story.
• Dynamic characters that experience changes throughout the plot of a story. Although the change may be sudden, it is expected based on the story’s events.
A story’s characters fall within a range—from very static characters that experience no change to very dynamic characters that undergo one or more major changes.

9. Journal Example
Text
Response

10. Objective
By the end of the lesson, each student will be able to identify the point of view of the story and analyze this perspective in a reading response journal entry.

11. Types of Point of View
Objective Point of View With the objective point of view, the writer tells what happens without stating more than can be inferred from the story's action and dialogue. The narrator never discloses anything about what the characters think or feel, remaining a detached observer.
Third Person Point of View Here the narrator does not participate in the action of the story as one of the characters, but lets us know exactly how the characters feel. We learn about the characters through this outside voice.
First Person Point of View In the first person point of view, the narrator does participate in the action of the story. When reading stories in the first person, we need to realize that what the narrator is recounting might not be the objective truth. We should question the trustworthiness of the accounting.
Omniscient and Limited Omniscient Points of View A narrator who knows everything about all the characters is all knowing, or omniscient.
A narrator whose knowledge is limited to one character, either major or minor, has a limited omniscient point of view.
As you read a piece of fiction think about these things:
How does the point of view affect your responses to the characters? How is your response influenced by how much the narrator knows and how objective he or she is? First person narrators are not always trustworthy. It is up to you to determine what is the truth and what is not.

12. Journal Example
Text
Response

13. Objective
By the end of the lesson, each student will be able to identify and explain various examples of figurative language in their reading response journals.

14. Figurative Language Scavenger Hunt
Go to the following website:  Read and review the definitions and examples for the following terms.  Then take the quiz at the bottom of each page.
alliteration, allusion, assonance, hyperbole, imagery irony, metaphor, onomatopoeia, personification simile

15. Scavenger Hunt, continued…
Peruse poetry websites and read several poems.
As you read the poems, look for examples of the types of figurative language listed in the previous slide. 
You will need to find at least five examples.  Write these examples in your composition book. List the five examples that you have found in response-journal format. See the example on the following slide.
Please remember that in your journals, you must find examples from your independent reading book.

16. Journal Example Text Response
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” (From “Dreams” by Langston Hughes)
This is a metaphor, comparing a dream that has been forgotten to a bird with a broken wing. Just as the bird with the broken wing cannot fly, a person without a dream to believe in and work toward cannot rise above life’s challenges.

17. Homework:
Using the examples you have been shown, Write your own journal entries for the book that you are reading independently.
Journal Due Dates:
You are welcome to turn in your journals early so that you have time to revise before the end of the quarter.

18. Lesson 4 Check for Understanding
Please get out your figurative language examples from the computer lab. Choose one example to share with the class.
Bonus (candy), share one of the figurative language examples that you wrote in response to a work of art. Be prepared to tell us the name of the painting and describe the picture you chose.