Prereading Questions: Characters
Perspective
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Overview
Students often struggle with this notion of a complex character. A complex character can be pretty easily broken down into this idea:
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Selections: Sherman Alexie / Jane Austen
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Selection Links
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Discussion Questions: Alexie
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Discussion Questions: Austen
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Example: Portia from Julius Caesar
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One prominent character trait of Portia's, which we see in the speech in which she tries to convince Brutus to confide in her, is that she is extremely concerned about demonstrating her worthiness to be confided in. As a woman under patriarchal Roman law, she had little to no credibility. During this conversation, Portia must demonstrate her credibility. To do so, she refers not only to her noble father (from whom, presumably, she inherited traits of worth) but also stabs herself in the leg to demonstrate how much she can control her own emotions.
FURTHER PRACTICE Students who consistently struggle with this concept can be given the template as a Do Now and be asked to construct a complex character claim based on a current work being read in class or one assigned as homework. Students can also simply be focused on the very end of the claim, the X and Y terms, and be asked, "What are your X and Y terms" to get a sense of student understanding. |
Writing About Character: The Character Complexity Template
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The Character Complexity Template
Part Three
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