Lesson 12 - Static & Dynamic Characters

🕐 Lesson Overview

Bellringer
Notes: Static & Dynamic Characters
Read: Chapter 12 & 13

⭐ Objectives

I can use descriptive words (adjectives).
I can use textual evidence to support character analysis.
I can analyze characters.

📏 Standards

🗽 NYSNGSS

7R1:
Cite textual evidence to support an analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferences.
7R3 - RL:
In literary texts, analyze how elements of plot are related, affect one another, and contribute to meaning.
7W5:
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
7L6:
Acquire and accurately use general academic and content-specific words and phrases; apply vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

💖 SEL

1B.3a:
Identify how their personal strengths, challenges, experiences, and identities influence choices and outcomes.

🗒️ Lesson Plan

Anticipatory Set

Students will create two columns in their journals and label them as Me in Elementary School and Me in Middle School. The teacher will give students a few minutes to list as many adjectives as they can in both columns. After sufficient time has elapsed, the teacher will invite students to Turn & Talk with a friend about how they have changed (or not changed) since elementary school.

The teacher will invite students to share their conversations. The class will then review the agenda and objectives.

Developmental Activity

Students will write the following notes in their journals.

A static character does not change over the course of a story. They are the same person at the beginning of the story as they are at the end.

A dynamic character undergoes an important change over the course of a story in personality or attitude.

The teacher should emphasize that, in order to qualify as a dynamic character, this change must be internal. Simply growing older or changing one's appearance is not enough. The teacher will make students aware that there will be a jump in timeline in today's chapters; they should pay attention to the changes, if any, that Salva undergoes in that time.

The class will then read aloud Chapter 11. The teacher will use the Equity Sticks strategy to select readers on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis. The teacher will pause the reading to check for understanding, introduce new vocabulary, or explain unfamiliar concepts.

Closure

Students will complete the Static or Dynamic Exit Ticket; they will analyze Salva and Nya as well as themselves.

🧠 Rationale

This lesson supports students' comprehension of the character of Salva, building on previous analyses, as well as the shifting timeline in the plot of the novel. It builds self-awareness and text-to-self connections by encouraging students to consider how they too have changed throughout their lives.

⚙️ Modifications

If in a co-taught class, a co-teacher should pull a small group of students to work together on the refugee article and questions and provide relevant small group interventions/support.