A character evolution timeline (see sample chapter on Narrative Writing & CCSS by Olson, Scarcella, & Matuchniak) requires a reader to follow one character through a story, select textual evidence to make a claim as to what a character is feeling, and then support that claim with evidence from the text. This activity gives students practice making inferences and identifying bias in a text. The 14 photos below are of different characters from The Plot Against America.
Students need to identify the character, use an emoticon or symbol to characterize the character’s emotional state and then explain the character’s feelings with a quote from the story. This activity is to help students develop skills in sourcing documents and making predictions as to a person’s motivation and an author’s intent.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.
HistoryRewriter 