Introducing Character Goals, Motivation, and Obstacles

Objectives

Students will be able to ...

• define goal, motivation, and obstacle as they pertain to character analysis
• identify goals, motivations, and obstacles of characters in a reader's theatre play about the civil rights movement

Procedure

1. Do Now: In the reading workshop section of their notebooks, students will answer the following question: What is a goal you have? Why do you want to achieve that goal? What stands in your way to reach the goal.

2. Discuss their answers and tell them that the next step in our study of character analysis is to look at what characters want, why they want those things, and what stands in the way of them getting them.

3. I will pass out the readers theatre play about the civil rights movement, we will assign roles and we will read it together.

4. After reading, I will introduce students to Somebody Wanted Because But So (taken from Kylene Beers' book When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do).