Lesson 1: Building the context or field: Characters in narrative

Learning intention

We will recall characters from familiar narratives we either like or dislike and provide reasons.

Success criteria

I can distinguish between familiar characters in narratives that appeal and those that do not. I can provide reasons why I like or dislike certain characters. 

Links to Victorian Curriculum – English

Speaking and listening

Level 2:

Level 3:

  • Discuss texts in which characters, events and settings are portrayed in different ways, and speculate on the authors’ reasons. For more information, see: Content description VCELT274

Reading and viewing

Level 4:

Describe the effects of ideas, text structures and language features of literary texts. For more information, see: Content description VCELT283 

Links to the Victorian Curriculum – English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Pathway B

Speaking and listening

Level BL:

  • Take turns to speak or listen during class interactions (VCEALA169)
  • Identify basic items of information in short spoken texts (VCEALC167)

Level B1:

  • Speak or listen appropriately during class interactions (VCEALA248)
  • Identify some key points of information in short spoken texts, with guidance (VCEALC245)

Level B2:

  • Participate appropriately in social and learning situations (VCEALA329)
  • Identify key points of information in short spoken texts (VCEALC326)

Level B3:

  • Initiate and manage interaction appropriately in social and learning situations (VCEALA409)
  • Understand a new topic delivered with extensive contextual and teacher support (VCEALC406)
  • Identify and compare a range of different text types (VCEALL439)

Reading and viewing

Level BL:

Level B1:

  • Provide responses to texts (VCEALC268)
  • Participate in simple group activities on shared texts, with some support (VCEALC270)

Level B2:

  • Express a personal response to an imaginative text or elements of the text (VCEALC349)
  • Identify informative, imaginative and persuasive texts when reading texts or listening to texts read aloud (VCEALL360)

Level B3:

  • Express a personal response to a small range of imaginative texts (VCEALC428)
  • Identify and compare a range of different text types (VCEALL439)

Lesson sequence

This lesson will draw on student’s familiarity with narrative texts and characters to explore the ways in which they have responded to different characters.

  1. Ask the students to think about some characters from narratives they are familiar with, distinguishing between those characters they align with and those they don’t.
  2. Allow students time to look through narratives available in books in the classroom to find parts which provide details of the characters, their appearance, their actions, their dispositions which they can record to share later.
  3. Share responses inviting the students to explain why they liked or didn’t like the character. 

Differentiation

Responses can be varied based on students' reading and interest in characters. Students requiring support can be guided to recall characters in narratives that have been read in class or provided with prompts to guide their selection.