STEPP Lesson Plan Form

Teacher: Laurie Rice

School: Fort Collins High School

Date: 09/15/15
Grade Level: 9

Title: Of Mice and Men Character Analysis

Content Area:

U.S. Literature

Lesson #:_1_ of _1_

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the standard)
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. (CCSS: RL.910.3)
Understandings: (Big Ideas)
How characters gain identity and validity in works of literature.
Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction, select
applicable questions from standard)
What character traits seemed to be conflicting with one character (or more) in the text? (For example, a
character started out as a generous person and then became bitter and selfish after a disaster.)
Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets)
Every student will be able to: (Create your own lesson objectives from the standard, follow the ABCD
format, using student voice)
I can: Analyze characters and their roles based off of context clues to determine how they develop over
the course of a text.
This means: I will be able to use clues hidden within the text including adjectives, dialect, descriptions of
traits and situational awareness to determine characterization and meaning.
List of Assessments: (Write the number of the learning target associated with each assessment)

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As people prepare to become members of society, they will encounter multiple perspectives that will
require judgment and scrutiny.

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Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of
Lesson
Should be a creative title for
you and the students to
associate with the activity.
Think of the purpose as the
mini-rationale for what you
are trying to accomplish
through this lesson.
Approx. Time and
Materials
How long do you expect the
activity to last and what
materials will you need?

Name: Character Analysis for Of Mice and Men

Anticipatory Set
The hook to grab students
attention. These are actions
and statements by the
teacher to relate the
experiences of the students
to the objectives of the
lesson, To put students into a
receptive frame of mind.
To focus student
attention on the
lesson.
To create an
organizing framework

Have you ever gotten to know a character so well that you were a little sad
when the story was over?

Purpose: To be able to identify characters and analyze their significance in

a given text.

Time: 50 minutes
Materials:
Smart Board
The text Of Mice and Men
Internet and access to personal computer

How is it that a writer can create a character on a page and make readers
feel as if they have met a real person?

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for the ideas,

principles, or
information that is to
follow (advanced
organizers)
An anticipatory set is used
any time a different activity
or new concept is to be
introduced.
Procedures
(Include a play-by-play
account of what students
and teacher will do from the
minute they arrive to the
minute they leave your
classroom. Indicate the
length of each segment of
the lesson. List actual
minutes.)
Indicate whether each is:
-teacher input
-modeling
-questioning strategies
-guided/unguided:
-whole-class practice
-group practice
-individual practice
-check for understanding
-other

1. Introduce students to character analysis lesson by having a whole class,

warm-up discussion surrounding these questions (5-7mins)
Have you ever gotten to know a character so well that you were a
little sad when the story was over?

How is it that a writer can create a character on a page and make

readers feel as if they have met a real person

2. Lecture/ teacher modeling (via PPT displayed on Smart Board) of various

context clues used to analyze characters in order to determine which
character traits seemed to be conflicting with one character (or more) in
the text? (10mins)
Direct vs. Indirect Characterization describes or shows
character traits
Direct:
o Adjectives: physical traits and personality traits
Indirect:
o 5 methods of Indirect Characterization
1. Speech: What does the character say and how does he/she
speak?
2. Thoughts: What is shown about the character through his/her
private thoughts and feelings?

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3. Effect: What effect does the character have on other people?

How do they feel or react to him/her?
4. Actions: What does the character do? How does the character
act in different situations?
5. Looks: What does the character's appearance say about his/her
personality?
Flat vs. Round two dimensional vs. complex
Static vs. Dynamic how the characters change over the
course of the text

3. Individual practice (via PCs) (20-25mins)

Google Form Of Mice and Men Character Analysis: reinforces
lecture and discussion
o Character and Quotation matching
o Finding examples of Language Features used to describe
characters
o Flat vs. Round characters
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ix7dIfYn_omzBQeqXilBSnTDhLLQ6wRfQLS3HKYu7U/viewform?usp=send_form#start=invite
4. Closure (3mins)
By a show of hands, who here feels like they have a deeper to one of
the characters from the text?
For those of you who have not, what are some language features or
context clues you could use to better understand a character?
Closure
Those actions or statements
by a teacher that are
designed to bring a lesson
presentation to an
appropriate conclusion. Used

By a show of hands, who here feels like they have a deeper to one of
the characters from the text?
For those of you who have not, what are some language features or
context clues you could use to better understand a character?

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to help students bring things

together in their own minds,
to make sense out of what
has just been taught. Any
Questions? No. OK, lets
move on is not closure.
Closure is used:
To cue students to the
fact that they have
arrived at an important
point in the lesson or
the end of a lesson.
To help organize
student learning
To help form a coherent
picture and to consolidate.
Differentiation
To modify: If the activity is
too advanced for a child,
how will you modify it so
that they can be successful?
To extend: If the activity is
too easy for a child, how will
you extend it to develop
their emerging skills?
Assessment
How will you know if
students met the learning
targets? Write a description
of what you were looking for
in each assessment.

Post PPT for access to notes/lecture

Print out of the Google Form/ post link to Blackboard

If students finish early they can continue reading the novel, OR work on
their Exit Ticket

Students will compose an exit ticket answering the following question

(5mins)
After looking at these characters more closely, and thinking about the
major plot points in this novel so far, which character do you feel has
had the most influence in either advancing the plot or developing a
theme? Please provide the character's name and a justification of

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how he/she is important in either of these areas.

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Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize
assessment data to justify your level of achievement)
The lesson objectives communicated were achieved based on the
formal

assessment the students completed following the lesson. Based

on the performance from the Google Forms assessment, students exhibited

understanding of the concepts and ideas communicated. They were able to
pick up on direct and indirect characterization based on the context clues
provided in the book, and did proficiently on character matching to important
quotations. On average, students were scoring anywhere from 15-20 points
on the 20 point assessment, and ones who scored lower appeared to be
confused in the instructions provided. If I were to do another lesson or
assessment using Google Forms or other electronic medium, I need to be
more direct in my verbal instructions, and my written instructions need to be
more in detail. This is because the students who scored the lowest didnt
complete all of the necessary parts to a question, or didnt answer it at all,
which was a reflection on my delivery of directions. Otherwise, I fee like this
lesson was executed to the best of my ability, given the fact that it was my
first week with the students and back in the classroom.
2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would
you make if you were to teach again?
Changes, omission or additions to the lesson I would make if I were to
teach again
would be
a. Go over the agenda at the beginning
b. Let students know how much time were going to spend on
something
c. I would provide students with a discussion question, to give them
time to write and think so we can have more in depth discussions
probing questions
d. Be more explicit in directions, why were doing this take notes,
this should be review
e. Let students know what options they have if they finish early or
dont finish
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f. check ins"/outs in order to gauge how students are doing

amidst an activity or assignment
g. Give students a Time Frame, how long they have to complete the
task given to them
h. Let students know when youre switching gears Questions,
before I switch gears?

3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice,

reteach content, etc.)
For the next lesson, I envision changing many things. For one,
trying to maintain a slower pace, because my students had a hard time
keeping up with me as I went through the notes, and as a result, they
had more than enough class time to get the assessment done. I also
need to be more direct and explicit in my instructions by telling my
students exactly what I want them to do, how it should look, how long
they have to complete it. I found that I was constantly repeating
myself to individual students, and they were already too far into the
activity to where I couldnt catch them and give them further
instruction. Since my overall pace was too quick, I want to make sure I
have back up things for them to do if they finish early or dont finish in
the allotted class time. Most groups finished at least 20 minutes early,
resulting in mild chaos and much chatter. Otherwise, I am pretty
impressed with the way my very first lesson, the first week of school
went with a class and a group of students I was unfamiliar with.

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