“Ten Things” Character Analysis Assignment

13Apr10

Ten Things CHARACTER ANALYSIS CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT WORKSHEET

This activity is intended for students grades ninth through twelfth, although I feel like it might be best for freshmen and sophomore students. On the surface it is a creative writing activity meant to help students get to know characters they might be writing about, but embedded within that is a personal goal setting activities (step 1 of the activity). This activity may also be used to help students gain an understanding of a character from a work that they are already reading; you might ask, “How would so-and-so from Bombingham answer these questions?” and let the students fill in the answers. Because of the three activities the “Character Analysis Sheet” could be used for, I think the clip and activity are very versatile.

I choose this clip first because of the versatility I saw in the questions and the uses of the answers, but I feel like the video clip would be great in the classroom as the rawness and simple language would be thought provoking and easy for anyone to understand. There are many “Character Analysis” sheets on the Internet intended for helping students get to know their own characters, but I thought using a song like this might help them internalize the questions and remember them. Also, I hoped with the song’s positive message and the tendency for adolescents to be music sensitive, students might enjoy the activity rather than just going though the motions of it – not to mention, the song is only two minutes long so it won’t take up too much class time.

While I don’t feel like there is anything in the song that might be offensive, there is always a risk when bringing in contemporary material. Also, there is a chance that some students might not respond to the music if they feel it is dated, but I think that might be unlikely. If the video is ever taken down from the Internet, I have the album, so at least the class will be able to hear the song, which is the most important part.

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