As a teacher of gifted students in a pullout group setting that focuses in literacy I am always trying out new ways to extend and enrich these students.
In Year One, I have looked at characters. The scene was set – we had just invented a machine that could travel inside books to meet different characters.
- Students were asked to think of as many characters from books as they could (noting books not movies)
- We then classified these characters as being either from the Past, Present, our world or other worlds. Some characters fitted in more than one quadrant. Students needed to justify why the character was placed where it had been.
- Once we did this, students chose a character from each quadrant that they would like to meet.
- I then introduced Gardner’s multiple intelligences in a simplistic way to show students all of the different ways someone can be smart.
- Students then worked out how their character showed different types of intelligences throughout their story with examples from the book.
This is a great way to look differently at character analysis and also helps students to see that being smart isn’t just about academia, it can be about so much more than that.
Let me know if you get to share this lesson in your classroom
