ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS RESOURCES

DEFINING THROUGH VERBAL CHARADES

Planning Points

Approximate Time Needed: 1 day
Correlation to English I SCS: 4.02, 5.01, 6.01
Correlation to NC High School Exit Exam Competencies:C2, C5, C7, PI9

Lesson Objectives:

• Using color-coding as a form of annotation, students will increase their reading comprehension.
• Using colored pencils, students will identify and code patterns in a piece of text.
• Students will analyze the significance of the patterns they identify.

Materials Needed:

• Colored pencils
• Handout with passage (example taken from To Kill A Mockingbird, p. 187-88, from "'He blacked your left eye with his right fist?'" to the last "No answer.")
• "T" Chart
• Writing Assignment

Description:

Color-Coding is a form of annotation where students color-code a pattern they find in a piece of text. Teachers can state the patterns-i.e. black/white; time; questioning. Students can also find patterns on their own, giving them confidence to interact with a piece of text independently. For this lesson, use color-coding with the court room scene from To Kill A Mockingbird in which Atticus questions Mayella. Although this is a piece of fiction, you can use color-coding with other types of text, including the students' own writing assignments. For example, students could identify their topic sentence in yellow, supporting details in blue, and analysis of those details in pink.

Directions:

Each person should have a handout with the passage typed on it, leaving enough margin and space at the bottom for student notes and a legend.

One person should read the passage.

Ask someone to identify the context of the passage.

Read the passage a second time, looking for patterns. A pattern can be defined as any item that is mentioned more than once.

At the bottom of the page, create a legend. For example, in this passage, "scream" is used five times and "hollered" once. Down at the bottom of the passage, you could make a box, color it in with a red marker, and label it "screaming." Then, every time you saw this pattern in the text, you would mark it in red.

When the students are finished, the teacher should list all the patterns the students found on a piece of paper. Encourage students to explain their responses so that everyone benefits from their discovery.

After everyone one has shared and the group has found as many patterns as possible, the teacher or class should select one. As a group, discuss its significance. To prompt a discussion of the pattern's significance, ask the questions, "Why is it important?" or "What does it reveal about the person who said it?" or "So what?". For example, "So what that the word scream is repeated five times? What does this tell us about Atticus? Mayella? Why is this repetition important? What point is Harper Lee trying to convey or reveal about these characters?"

Assessment:

During the discussion, look to see if students are able to share at least one pattern and explain it. During the analysis activity, a student should be able to go beyond a literal example to explore its significance.

If students complete the follow-up writing activity (see below), assess the paragraph using the following checklist:

____ Does the writer have a clear topic sentence that states which character they are analyzing and how Harper Lee characterizes him or her in this scene?
____ Does the writer give at least two or three patterns to support the topic sentence?
____ Does the writer elaborate on each pattern showing its significance and exploring how it reveals character?
____ Does the writer end with an overall conclusion about the character he selected?

Additional Notes:

Teacher's Notes:

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