TC Name: Darius Wimby

Lesson Title: “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization

Date: Thursday, September 27, 2018

Lesson and Assessment Plan Context:

“Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization
Overview
In the lesson, “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover – Understanding Characterization,” 27 students in the Ninth
Grade Reading Enrichment class will learn the differences in characterization in various texts – direct and
indirect characterization, static and dynamic characters, and round and flat characters. This lesson is designed
to help students see characters past their appearances, focusing on the characters’ thoughts and emotions,
actions and reactions, and through dialogue.

Using various pictures of the characters from the television show, black-ish, the lesson will begin with a
NearPod activity that allows students to make judgments about the characters based on their looks. Then, the
class will have an informal discussion about how we, as individuals, are often judged by our looks, speech, body
language, and emotions before a person gets an opportunity to get to know us. The discussion will allow for
students to see how their judgments of others can be used when reading literature and exploring the
characters. Following the discussion, students will watch an episode of black-ish entitled “The Name Game” to
analyze and discuss characterization on a TV show, mainly focusing on the characters’ thoughts, emotions, and
actions. Prior to watching the episode, students will randomly select one of the characters from the show to
complete the graphic organizer individually. Following the episode, students will be in small groups, and they
have to chart their findings of characterization from the episode.
Student Background, Culture, and Context
The class is a Ninth Grade Reading Enrichment class at Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School in DeKalb County
School District. At the school, it is one of three Reading Enrichment classes for the ninth-graders, in which it is
offered to the students who did not pass the Eighth Grade Georgia Milestones End of Grade test in April/May
2018 (C. Davenport, personal communication, August 18, 2018). The class is designed to reteach concepts from
their middle school ELA courses as well as strengthen the students’ reading skills to improve their Lexile scores
before graduating in 2022. Furthermore, the class is a co-taught classroom, where the special education
collaborative teacher often works with eight students who have learning disabilities and receive their
accommodations according to their IEPs. Based on the class roster, there are 27 total students, in which 100%
are males and 100% identify as Black/African-American. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2005)
report on coeducational vs. single-gender schooling, it spoke on the benefits of implementing single-gender
classes in the school to “lessen behavioral distractions” in the classroom, particularly in the English/Language
Arts and Mathematics classrooms (Mael, Alonso, Gibson, Rogers, & Smith, p. 36).

At Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School, the student body comes from a mostly low-income background, where the
median household income is $25,319 and 93.3% of the student population receive free or reduced lunch
(“McNair High School,” 2018). Within the school, the student-teacher ratio is 23:1, and the school receives Title
I funds for the students and parents in the community (“McNair High School,” 2018). According to Dr. L. Walker
(2018), principal at Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School, the school is no longer considered a priority school from
the Georgia Department of Education due to the increase in the school’s graduation rate of 64.3% (personal
communication, August 23, 2018). Demographically, the student body of 683 is 94.8% Black/African-
American; 4.2% Hispanic/Latino; 0.7% Caucasian; and 0.3% Asian/Pacific Islander (C. Davenport, personal
communication, August 18, 2018). In the school, high expectations from the school’s administrative team have
been explicitly expressed to the faculty and staff to implement culturally relevant pedagogy strategies in the
classrooms for the students, so they can become more equipped with recognizing the power they have with
their educations and prepare for life after high school (Ladson-Billings, 1994). According to Brown (2003),
“teachers must make meaningful connections with ethnically and culturally diverse students to positively
increase their academic growth” (p. 278). In the Ninth Grade Reading Enrichment class, students recognize

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2018
how the class is structured for them to voice their opinions freely and to ask questions as it relates to various
cultural texts to help them understand themselves and others better.

During the first week of school, students were given an introductory project assignment that gave the class a
glimpse into who the students were, what their interests are, and the goals they wish to accomplish in the
future. Students presented their projects for the Producers of Studio 312 (teachers of Room 312), and the
teachers were able to understand the students better than before. Based on the Mandala projects, students’
personal interests ranged from various genres of music (rap and hip-hop, R&B, and Top 40 music), clothing and
fashion, sports, social media trends, and other forms of popular culture.

Currently, the Ninth Grade Reading Enrichment students are approaching the end of the first unit of the
semester, Setting the Stage: Becoming a Better Reader. During this unit, students have spent time reading and
watching various texts that allow them to build their literary skills and knowledge on plot structure and
elements, theme, conflict, and point of view. In the last week, we have spent time reading “Thank You, Ma’am”
by Langston Hughes, and when asked in class to describe the characters (outside of how they are physically
described in the story), many students struggled with the directions. Thus, this lesson will help students to
identify various characterization traits when rereading the story, and it will help the students going forward as
we prepare for our Unit 1 Culminating Project, in which the students have to create a visual storyboard (either
drawn or using www.storyboardthat.com) using the plot elements (exposition, rising action, climax, falling
action, and resolution). In addition, students have to use the characterization techniques from the lesson to
bring their characters to life visually when they have to use the textual evidence from the short story to support
their visual.
Rationale

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2018
Lesson and Assessment Plan Context:
“Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization
Purpose of the Lesson: Central Focus
• How do authors create different characters?
• How does the reader learn about the characters’ traits?
• How does the character types change the reader’s experience of a text?
Learning Objective(s)
• Students will KNOW what characterization is and be able to IDENTIFY the different types of indirect
characterization in a text.
• Students will INTERPRET and ANALYZE how an author complex characters develop over the course of a
television episode and how it advances the plot.
• Students will CITE and USE textual evidence from various texts to support their analysis of the television
episode of “black-ish”.
GSE - Georgia Standards of Excellence
ELAGSE9-RL1: CITE strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly
as well as inferences drawn from the text.

ELAGSE9-RL3: 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.

ELAGSE9-SL1: INITIATE and PARTICIPATE effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in

groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas
and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
C. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current discussion to
broader themes or larger ideas; actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or
challenge ideas and conclusions.
ISTE Technology Standard
6C: Students COMMUNICATE complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital
objects such as visualizations, models, or simulations.
SPLC Anti-bias Framework Standard
Diversity #7: Students will DEVELOP language and knowledge to accurately and respectfully DESCRIBE how
people (including themselves) are both similar to and different from each other and others in their identity
groups.
Formal & Informal Assessment
The assessments for this lesson are as follows: daily warm-up question from USATestPrep (passages are
selected based on the standards we are focusing on for the week, which will be ELAGSE9-RL4), “Never Judge a
Book by Its Cover” Visual Literacy activity on NearPod, “black-ish” S.T.E.A.L. graphic organizer, and a group
Indirect Characterization presentation. All four of the assessments are formative assessments; however, the
Visual Literacy activity is the informal assessment while the daily warm-up question, the “black-ish” S.T.E.A.L.
graphic organizer, and the group presentation are the formal assessments. During this lesson, students’
understanding and fluency of the academic language will be shown through the building of the assessments.
When the students complete the Visual Literacy activity on NearPod, they will see how the inferences they

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2018
make when they look at pictures and they find textual evidence to support it are natural things they do every
day. As we work on the “black-ish” graphic organizer assignment, it will provide a model for the students to
then use when they work in groups to complete their group presentations of the episode and to complete their
Culminating Project for “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes.
For the Visual Literacy activity, the evidence of student learning will be shown as a typed visual response on the
NearPod platform. Students will use the code to access the NearPod to type their responses to the pictures as
well as draw their responses of personal questions at the beginning of the lesson. For the guided indirect
characterization activity, it will be a written response, where students will write on their graphic organizers
These assessments align with the learning objectives through using their inference skills to support their
evidence while also using explicit text to support their evidence as well. Furthermore, the students will be
citing textual evidence throughout the course, so it is important to constantly reinforce those skills each time,
so they can get better as they progress throughout their high school years. Finally, using the balanced literacy
approach of reading to write, students will be assessed through their writing on their graphic organizers as well
as their group presentations to ensure they understand the concepts of characterization and how to cite textual
evidence and use that to support their claims.
For the informal assessments, those items will not have a rubric or a scoring guide; however, it will be moreso
of a check for understanding and addressing any misconceptions through conversations and observations of
the student groups. Upon completing the “black-ish” S.T.E.A.L. graphic organizer and the group presentation,
we will be using the rubrics from the DeKalb County School District curriculum to check our work. In addition,
students will use their rubric from their Unit 1 Culminating Project to assess their knowledge of
characterization to see if they did well or need improvement.
For the character analysis group presentation, when each group comes to the front to present their responses,
either myself or my co-teacher will provide verbal feedback to the students after each presentation as well as
writing the feedback on the Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School feedback form, so they can use it in the future for
other assignments.
Using the feedback from the formative assessment, students will use it to complete another characterization
activity related to “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes. In addition, students will use the feedback to
complete their Unit 1 Culminating Project, where the students have to create a Digital Storyboard based on the
story, in which the students have to bring the characteristics of Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones and Roger
to life using the details from the text.
Facilitation & Safety
The classroom community in Studio 312 is a student-centered environment, which allows the students to voice
their concerns about things that may be transpiring in the classroom. In this student-centered environment,
the role of the teachers is viewed as facilitators of educating the students using various strategies to deepen
their learning knowledge of the concepts, so they can apply, synthesize, and evaluate a text as we progress
throughout the school year. In the classroom, the teachers promote positive speaking amongst everyone in the
room to show that we respect each other without having to demoralize another human being. This particular
class occurs during our second block of the day (9:50am – 11:20am). When the students come into the
classroom, they will see their daily warm-up on the board as well as today’s agenda on the whiteboard near the
door. During each class period, I normally assign a student to be responsible for the class timer to ensure we
are making most of our time in class. Periodically, I will make announcements to let the students know how
much time is left with completing assessments in class before we transition to the next activity, in which I also
make announcements about transitioning in the lesson to ensure students are staying on task and are engaged.

When participating in a classroom discussion, students must raise their hands in order to be acknowledged and
given the floor to speak. I will remind the class to raise their hands. If the classroom becomes hectic and

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2018
chaotic and the students are not being respectful to another student’s commentary, I will use zone of proximity
to stand near the student’s desk and make a private comment to that particular student. To ensure students
understand the instructions, I will have two students to repeat the directions in their own words, so the
students can have a better understanding of what they are expected to do in class.

Finally, the physical components of the classroom are the students’ desks arranged in rows (nine desks facing
the classroom door, ten desks facing the Promethean Board, and nine desks facing the two teachers’ desks). All
of the desks are set-up so they can see the Promethean Board; however, if they need to move up to the front,
then they are able to move to a closer desk. During our small-group activities and discussions, the desks can be
moved to create a small group, so everyone can hear each other and share their thoughts. Since many of the
students have Chromebooks, they will be encouraged not to plug up their battery chargers in the wall to
prevent people from tripping over cords in the classroom. As it pertains to classroom supplies, students will be
provided blue or black ink pens or pencils to complete their warm-up activity and graphic organizers if they
didn’t come with it to class. For the NearPod interactive activity, if students do not have their Chromebooks or
their cell phones for the activity, they will be allowed to use the student computer, located at the back of the
classroom, to participate in the opening activity.
Academic Language
Language Function
Students will be able to use the verb, ANALYZE, to demonstrate their ability in using indirect characterization to
gain knowledge about a character’s personality and their motivations as they embark on various scenarios in
their lives. Students will also use the language function by citing textual evidence to support their findings from
the television episode as well as from the short story, “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes. This language
function will allow students to shape their reasoning in vast applications to other literary, visual, and
informational texts as well as their life in the real world.
Vocabulary
Lesson Vocabulary: Characterization, Direct Characterization, Indirect Characterization, Flat Character, Round
Character, Static Character, Dynamic Character
Syntax or Discourse
In this lesson, the discourse will be the students’ ability to organize their thoughts and findings about a
character from the television show, “black-ish,” and communicating their results to the class. Students will
demonstrate their understanding of the discourse by using the characterization graphic organizer to record
their thoughts and findings from the episode and group those ideas into the S.T.E.A.L. characterization
categories. As students complete the graphic organizer, they will have to show their ability to cite textual
evidence (inferential and explicit) to support their evidence. The instructor will support the students through
modeling of completing one category using the character, Ruby, to show the students what the expectation is
for the assessment.
Instructional Strategies & Learning Tasks to Support Diverse Learners’ Needs
Introduction – 20 Minutes
During the pre-instructional activity, students will complete their daily warm-up on USATestPrep, in which the
passage is focused on the standard, ELAGSE9-RL4. Students will be given ten minutes to complete the daily
warm-up individually. Upon completing the warm-up, the students and teachers will go over the passage and
question together to determine if the students had the correct answer. This warm-up activity is the basis for
how our lesson will begin in class.

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2018
During the introduction, I will start the NearPod interactive activity with two questions:
1. Have you ever been judged before because of how you look or how you speak? (Poll Question)
2. How does it make you feel when people may judge you because of your name? (Students will draw their
responses on the NearPod platform).

After the activity, students will participate in another NearPod activity, where they will make
inferences/predictions of the characters from “black-ish” based on their observations of the pictures they see
on the screen to determine the characters’ traits. Students will share their explanations with the class and
record their answers on the platform. I will begin the characterization mini-lesson via NearPod, where
students will use their guided notes that addresses the differences in characterization (direct vs. indirect;
dynamic vs. static; flat vs. round). Following the mini-lesson, we will return to the images of the characters, and
students will make a prediction on whether they fit within a characterization category.
Body – 55 Minutes
Students will watch an episode of “black-ish” (Season 3, Episode 14 – “The Name Game”). Prior to watching the
“black-ish” episode, the teacher will briefly discuss the characters shown in the episode. Students will choose
one character (Dre, Rainbow, Zoey, and Junior) and will break into small groups. As students watch the
episode, they will identify the indirect characterization of their chosen character using the STEAL graphic
organizer provided. Each student will complete an independent graphic organizer to prepare for the group
assessment. During the first break of the episode, I will model how to complete the graphic organizer by using
Ruby as a model. I will ask students to share their observations of the character, and I will show the students
on the whiteboard how to structure their findings as well as citing their evidence from the episode.

We will resume the episode, and after each break, I will give students time to write their observations on their
graphic organizer charts. After the episode has concluded, students will get into their character groups and use
their graphic organizers to chart their findings from the episode. In their groups, students will determine if
their character was dynamic or static and flat or round, and they will provide evidence from the episode that
supports their claims.
Closure – 15 Minutes
Towards the end of the class period, students will come to the front of the classroom in their small groups to
present their “black-ish” characterization charts to the class about their chosen character. As students are
presenting, other groups will take notes on the groups’ presentations and provide constructive feedback on
how to improve upon their characterization graphic organizer. Teacher will use the individual graphic
organizers and the group activity to check for understanding and clarify any questions about characterization
in preparation for their characterization activity for “Thank You, Ma’am” for the next day.
Differentiation, Modification(s), & Accommodation(s)
In the Ninth Grade Reading Enrichment class, students were placed in the class because they were identified as
“transition” due to earning a Beginning Level score on the Georgia Milestones End of Grade Assessment when
they were in the eighth grade. These students have also been placed in the class based on their other
standardized test scores, Lexile scores, and previous academic performance in elementary and middle school.
During the first two weeks of school, I gave my students a Multiple Intelligences survey to understand what
type of learner best suits them in class. About 78% of the class are kinesthetic and visual learners while the
other 22% of the class are auditory and creative learners. In this particular lesson, I am differentiating through
how I deliver the lesson to my students by using the type of learners they are and tailoring my lessons around
their needs.

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2018
For the students who are the visual and auditory learners, the NearPod presentation will be on the Promethean
board as well as on the students’ Chromebooks and cell phones so they can have access to the notes and take
notes on their paper. During our class model of the indirect characterization of Ruby from black-ish, I will be
sure to write it legibly on the whiteboard as well as verbalize to the class what we went over to support their
notes. To accommodate the students who have vision problems, I will have those students to sit at the front of
class during the beginning of class, and students will have access to the NearPod presentation for 14 days, so
they can review their notes to support their Unit 1 Culminating Project storyboard.

With 27 students in the classroom, eight students have been identified as having an Individualized Education
Plan (IEP). Four students have been identified as having a specific learning disability; thus, when teaching a
whole-class setting, I make sure to chunk the material for every student in the class. I will model techniques
through think-alouds and writing models for them to refer back to at a later time. I will also make sure I
provide a model after class for the students who have a specific learning disability to ensure they refer back to
as they complete assignments at home. Finally, when working with the students with a specific learning
disability in a large class setting, small group, or one-on-one, I ensure that I allow them extra time for
processing and responding while also having them to restate information back to their peers or to me to ensure
they are clear on their directions.

Four students have been identified as having ADHD; thus, throughout the lesson, I have to use my proximity to
ensure that the students are staying on task at all times. Furthermore, most of the students sit near my desk, so
if they become distracted by various behaviors in the classroom, I can redirect them to get back on task.
Throughout this particular lesson, I will give those students extended time to complete the formal assignment
because they each take medicine, and during my class period, the four students often will have to take breaks
due to how the medicine makes them feel each day. I will also check in frequently to make sure they are
understanding the concepts of the direct and indirect characterization as well as the directions for the
assessment. Finally, I will use the chunking concepts to help the students better understand the longer and
challenging passages.

Lastly, one student in the class has been identified as having a 504 plan. According to the student’s 504 plan
documentation and the 504 meeting, this student must have preferential seating near my desk or my
collaborative teacher’s desk to assist him whenever he needs help. Due to his anger and frustration issues, if
the student needs to take a break to walk around the school, he has to hold up three fingers to be acknowledged
by me. Then, I will give him the hall pass, so he can walk around the school for five to ten minutes, then he can
return back to the class. Thus, he will need additional time to complete in-class assignments when working in
small groups or on his own.
Materials
The following materials will be used for this lesson on citing textual evidence:
• Computer
• Projector
• Whiteboard and Dry Erase Markers
• Promethean Board
• NearPod Interactive Presentation on Characterization (Teacher-Created)
• Internet (access to USATestPrep for Daily Warm-Up and Hulu to show “black-ish”)
• Student’s Chromebooks and Cell Phones (for NearPod Interactive Activity)
• Notebook Paper and Pens/Pencils for students who may not have their supplies for class
• Post-It Chart Paper
• Permanent Markers
• “black-ish” Season 3, Episode 14 “The Name Game” – http://www.hulu.com/black-ish

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” – Understanding Characterization
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2018
• “black-ish” Characterization Graphic Organizer (Teacher-Created)
References
Brown, D.F. (2003, Autumn). Urban teachers’ use of culturally responsive management strategies. Theory Into
Practice, 42(4), 277 – 282.

Davenport, C. (2018, August 18). Personal communication.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.

Mael, F., Alonso, A., Gibson, D., Rogers, K., & Smith, M. (2005). Single-sex versus coeducational schooling: A
Systematic review. (U.S. Department of Education Document No. 2005-01). Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office.

McNair High School. (2018). Retrieved from

http://www.schooldigger.com/go/GA/schools/0174000712/school.aspx

Walker, L. (2018, August 23). Personal communication.

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