A Book Report of a Different Color: Part 3

This is the third and final post in a series about engaging, creative assignments that can be used with your choice of literature. These assignments will get your students writing as well as thinking critically about themes, characters, setting, mood, etc! 

Here are five ideas for this week. Be sure to look back at the last two posts for more!

#11. Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it! Write an obituary for each character that dies in the play, novel, etc. If you’re not familiar with obituaries, read a couple from a local newspaper to see how they’re set up.

This assignment isn’t too challenging but encourages students to think about characterization as well as plot elements.

#12. Choose a character from (your choice of literary work) and draw an illustration that represents him or her. Here’s the catch: Your picture can’t be of the actual character. It must be some kind of abstract art that represents the character. Attach your illustration to a paragraph or two that explains why you illustrated the character the way you did. Be specific.

Here are a couple of student examples. The first one includes the written explanation as well. Students create their own symbolism in this more advanced assignment, and they focus on characterization as well.

#13. Choose a character from the novel, play, etc. Pretend to be that character, and create a scrapbook page about a particular event from the novel, play, etc. Be creative. Include pictures, mementos, journaling (that’s writing about the items on the page or about the event), and anything else you can think of that would be appropriate.

Here is a student example. This assignment makes students consider tone, mood, characterization, plot elements, and even setting. 

#14. If all the world’s a stage, you must have costumes! Choose a character from the play, novel, etc. and create a costume or costume part for him or her. You can make your piece from fabric, cut it out of paper, or use recycled household objects—whatever works! Don the costume, take a picture, and attach it to a paragraph explaining why you chose this particular costume for this particular character. Why this design? Why this color? Explain it all! And feel free to wear it to class!

It’s amazing how much fun students have with this remake of the old elementary school book character day. I’ve had everything from a pair of cross-gartered yellow stockings (Twelfth Night) to chains (A Christmas Carol) to a red “A” (Scarlet Letter). Some even wear their costume pieces around school all day!

#15. The game is afoot. Create a board game for (novel, play, etc.). Make it really relevant to the literature and include some elements of skill so a player has a better chance of winning if he or she has read the work. Bring in the game along with necessary pieces and directions so we can play.

Here is a student sample. This game encompassed several different Shakespearean plays, but most students base their games on just one novel or play. Either way, students must have a complete understanding of the work to produce a quality game, and they have a great time playing all of the games when they’re finished. I keep a collection of dice, pawns, spinners, etc. for them to use if needed.

I hope you have picked up a few new ideas in these past three posts. We’ll be moving on to a different topic next week, so be sure to come back!

In the MOOD for Verbs?

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.1c. Form and use verbs in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive mood.

Regardless of how you feel about Common Core, teaching verb mood can be pretty challenging. These three steps can help your students learn these concepts—and they can be applied to teaching other concepts as well!

The steps are simple. Step one: Introduce the concept. Step two: Collect examples. Step three: Use and identify examples in the context of writing. The process looks something like this:

Step one: Introduce the concept. There are many ways to introduce these different moods, of course, but one way is by having students create mini-posters. In small groups, students illustrate indicative (making a statement), imperative (giving a command), and interrogative (asking a question) mood. Provide a model of each mood, and then give each group a specific verb to use. (There's a sample below. Hang on just a minute.)

Continue with mini-posters of conditional and subjunctive, which are a little trickier. It’s best to introduce these moods after students begin to understand independent and dependent clauses. (Daily Grammar Practice can help with these concepts!) 

The conditional mood is almost always used with the modals could, might, or would in an independent clause. If you wanted a detailed explanation of conditional mood, you would check out http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/conditional.htm.

Some people believe the use of subjunctive mood is fizzling out like the use of whom and shall. In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye sings

If I were a rich man,
Yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
If I were a biddy biddy rich,
Idle-diddle-daidle-daidle man.

In the more modern song “What If?” by Coldplay, however, we see

What if there was no light?
Nothin' wrong, nothin' right.
What if there was no time
And no reason or rhyme?

If you were to visit http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/grammar_subjunctive.html, you would find more information about subjunctive mood (which occurs in a dependent clause).

Here are examples of student-created mini-posters. Notice that the students underlined the verb in each sentence.

Step Two: Collect examples. My students don’t generally have trouble with imperative, interrogative, and indicative, but the best way I have found to help them grasp subjunctive and conditional mood is to have them collect examples. Think of a bug collection—except with sentences as the specimens! Dedicate a bulletin board or space on your wall for the collection. When a student comes across an example of one of the moods you are studying, she writes it on a note card (along with a basic citation). 

When a student brings in an example, allow him to share it with the class and point out the verb form. Then post the card in the permanent collection. My classes have always enjoyed competing against each other—the first class to bring in twenty specimens gets some kind of reward, for example. With awareness of and regular exposure to the different moods, students can remember and use them correctly. 

Here is an example of a specimen card and one of the charts I use to keep up with how many examples each class has contributed.

Step three: Use and identify examples in the context of writing. When students submit writing for assessment, require them to highlight and identify any imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive forms they use. (They can occasionally highlight an indicative as well though it’s certainly not necessary to point out every one of those!) 

Annotating their own writing in this way encourages students to think critically about the writing and to understand the relevance of the concepts they are studying. Of course, students can identify other concepts you’re trying to reinforce as well.

Here is a student example. Because of the annotation, you can see quickly and clearly that this student understands interrogative mood but doesn't quite grasp conditional mood yet. This type of assessment is much more meaningful than a multiple choice test.

If you have your own classroom-tested strategies for teaching verb mood, I hope you’ll share them in the comments section below. We can all use a new idea now and then!