During Reading Strategy for Charles Dickens Great Expectations Penguin Classics (New York: 2003) During Strategy: Literary Scrapbook

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1 During Reading Strategy for Charles Dickens Great Expectations Penguin Classics (New York: 2003) During Strategy: Literary Scrapbook Purpose of the Strategy Literary Scrapbooks are great projects that can be used throughout the reading of a longer work such as Dickens Great Expectations. Students pick to assume one character s identity and then create a scrapbook of mementos from events that happen to the character throughout the novel. Through this assignment students are able to experiment with writing in different genres (journal entries of the characters, letters to someone from the character, letters to the character from someone else, obituary of the character if he or she dies in the novel, newspaper article on the character, etc.). This culmination of information on one character will show students in-depth knowledge on their character s personality traits, motivations, and experiences throughout the book. This assignment is helpful because students get to express their knowledge of a character in a creative way while also getting to experiment with different domains and points of view (writing in firstperson for the journal entries and writing in third-person for the newspaper article). Rationale This is a useful during reading strategy because it can begin as soon as students are familiar enough with one character to write a journal entry in his or her voice and can continue through to the end of the novel as the students document their character s actions and growth. Because the literary scrapbook is so unique and creative, it also helps to get students interested in and excited about the book. A literary scrapbook also helps students develop a sense of characterization and in-depth knowledge of one character. Finally, students develop writing skills by writing in different genres and from different points of view. Directions Step One: Have students choose one of the main characters in Great Expectations to base their literary scrapbooks on. (Character ideas include Pip, Estella, Miss Havisham, Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch, among others).

2 Step Two: Announce to students that their completed scrapbooks will need to be ten pages in length including pictures, a brief character fact sheet, three journal entries by their character, a letter from their character to another character in the novel, the response letter from the other character, a newspaper article on their character, and a personal reflection on how their character s actions and personality reflect the novel s enduring question of social status and prestige. Step Three: Pass out a calendar indicating the due dates of the separate components of the literary scrapbook and the final product (i.e. when the character fact sheet, three journal entries, two letters, newspaper article, and personal reflection will be due and when the final scrapbook will be due with pictures). Also pass out a scoring rubric to show students how many points each component is worth and what elements each component should include. Step Four: Model each component of the literary scrapbook as its due date approaches so students understand how to write in the different genres (model the genres of character fact sheets, journal entries, letters, newspaper articles, and personal reflections). Also teach and model the different points of view students can use in their writing (i.e. firstperson for journal entries and third-person for newspaper articles). Step Five: Provide students with sample scrapbooks to give them ideas of how they can creatively put their literary scrapbook together. Encourage them to add pictures with subtitles to their scrapbook and different sections with headings. Step Six: Have students get in groups of four and present their literary scrapbooks to each other, sharing what they ve learned about their character and also about the enduring question in the novel of social status and prestige. As the group members listen to the presenter, they will fill out an evaluation sheet. A Note to Teachers This during strategy is one that will take up more time (both on your end in modeling and grading the assignment and on the students end in learning to write in the different genres and points of view and putting the scrapbook together in the end with pictures and finishing touches). I would possibly consider making it the culminating assignment for

3 Great Expectations and thus assigning it as the final project on the novel. If you wanted to shorten or condense the assignment you could choose to assign only one of the components of the literary scrapbook as a during reading strategy (i.e. have them only write the character fact sheet, journal entry, letter, or newspaper article on their chosen character). This would be effective in getting students to know a certain character a little better and showing to you that they have read the book and understand the nature of the character. Assessment The literary scrapbook will be graded based on the scoring rubric that was handed out indicating how many points each component of the project was worth and what elements each component needed to have. Make sure that students understood the concepts of different genres as modeled in class (character fact sheets, journal entries, newspaper articles, personal reflections) and how to write in different points of view (firstperson in journal entries and third-person in newspaper articles). Go down the rubric to make sure they met all of the requirements and had all of the parts in each component. Finally, check to make sure the student s scrapbook demonstrates an understanding of the nature, personality, and actions of the character he or she chose to analyze. It is also important to assess students personal reflections to see if they can relate what they ve learned about their character to the enduring question in the novel of social status and prestige. This will show you that students know what the big picture of the novel is and that they understand how the character they explored fits into that big picture.

4 Literary Scrapbooks Directions You will be creating your own literary scrapbook based on one of the main characters in Great Expectations. You can choose from Pip, Estella, Miss Havisham, Joe, Biddy, or Magwitch (or another character you approve with me beforehand). Requirements: Your completed scrapbooks will need to be ten pages in length and the following: a brief character fact sheet three journal entries from the point of view of your chosen character a letter from you character to another character in the novel (i.e. from Pip to Joe) the response letter from the other character to your character (i.e. Joe s response to Pip) a newspaper article featuring something that happens to your character in the novel pictures a personal reflection on how your character s actions and personality reflect the novel s enduring question of social status and prestige Presenting After you have completed your scrapbooks you will great into groups of four to five students to present your scrapbook to your classmates. Each group member will be required to evaluate the others on a sheet that I will provide you with. Final Due Date I will pass out a more detailed calendar with all the steps broken down. The final due date will be December 15 th.

5 Literary Scrapbooks Scoring Rubric Components a brief character fact sheet 15 pts. three journal entries from the point of view of your chosen character 30 pts. a letter from you character to another character in the novel 10 pts. the response letter from the other character to your character 10 pts. a newspaper article featuring something that happens to your 15 pts. character pictures 15 pts. a personal reflection on how your character s actions and personality 15 pts. reflect the novel s enduring question of social status and prestige Organization/Appearance Literary scrapbook is organized and visually appealing 15 pts. Mechanics Written work is mainly free of mechanical errors 10 pts. Group Presentation You presented to your group and evaluated your group members 15 pts. Total Possible Points 200 Score: /200

6 Literary Scrapbook: Group Evaluation Sheets Name: Presenter name: (Circle 1-5 to rate the presenter in the following areas five being the highest) 1. The presenter s scrapbook had all of the necessary components The presenter s scrapbook looked neat, organized, and visually appealing The presenter explained his character to the group through presenting his or her character s journal entries, letters, newspaper article, and pictures The presenter connected his or her character to the universal questions of social status and prestige The presenter spoke clearly and slowly