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A Picture Paints a Thousand Words:
A Lesson for use with the Gallery Photos
By Gail Lindenberg

Overview

Appropriate in high school or middle school English classes, this lesson provides a group activity with individual analysis of novel characters. Students will react to the photographs of major characters in Willa Cather's novel and prepare a wall display that captures the personality of these characters. Found "essence quotations" for the characters will provide the basis for an essay on characterization.

Student Objectives

Students will:

• Scan the literature for appropriate quotations for each photographed character
• Analyze and interpret the quotations
• Document their findings using appropriate citation format
• Write an essay explaining the background of the chosen quotation and analysis of character
• Work in a group to prepare a wall display of quotation captions and photographs

Skills Attained

• Close reading of literature
• Team effort to accomplish a group project
• Individual analysis and understanding of characterization
• Formal essay writing

Materials Needed

1. Online production shots of the characters from Cather's The Song of the Lark. (These are available for download from our web site. If the instructor cannot make these photographs available, an alternative plan will require that students generate the visual depictions of the characters.)
2. A template or design for each portrait. Decide how much wall or bulletin board space is available and limit each portrait size accordingly. Pre-cut picture "frames" of construction paper would establish parameters of size. Include a list of pieces which are to be included as well as allowable options to fit the space available. Some of these options might include visual symbols to match each character.

Lesson Outline

I. Anticipatory Set

1. If you use the photographs provided by the web site, these will need to be made available for the class to view and discuss. Have them name the characters. Ask them to describe the emotions depicted in the photographs.
2. If you don't plan to use the site's production photos, ask your students to describe the characters in The Song of the Lark. Have them brainstorm details of physical description, costume, gestures, facial expression , etc. that are appropriate to each character.

1. Group the students and assign each group responsibility for one character. They are to use the given photograph or design a portrait of their character suitable for wall display. If a group does not have a willing artist, they may find magazine photographs that would fit the characterization.
2. Provide students with the parameters for wall display. How big are the portraits to be? How much space do they have for the essence quotations which will caption the portrait? How much space do they have for narrative anecdotes? What other visual elements should be included? Encourage students to give drawings or magazine cut-outs of visual symbols that are appropriate to the characters. (For example, an opera house seen in the distance might be a good visual depiction for Thea.)
3. Students in each group should find "essence quotations" from The Song of the Lark and bring these to class for group discussion and selection. They should choose the quotations that reveal insights into their characters. They may also wish to choose quotes that will complement the facial expression on their character's portrait.
4. Have students write essays for their group's character. These can be team or individual writing assignments. The essays should show the character in context of the selected "essence quotation." The quotation itself might be used as a prompt for the writing.
5. Grade and/or edit the essays as a separate writing assignment. Peer-editing is a possible method to be used, but the instructor should see each final copy before it is approved for wall display.
6. Collect the visuals and prepare for wall display. As much as possible, students should be involved in the actual assembly and placement of the visuals.

Assessment

Checklist of assignment criteria (ratings 1-10)

Visual elements: proper size _____neat ______complete ______Creatively packaged ____

Caption: appropriate to character ______

Essay: based on the quotation _____strongly edited _____interesting ______well-told ____

General: accurate _____on time _____shows individual effort _____shows team effort ____

Other Literary Connections

This assignment can be used with any other piece of literature, especially texts that are accompanied by film versions. Most film companies have stills available. The Sunburst Corporation is a teaching tool company which offers still photographs of scenes of many film versions of works such as A Raisin in the Sun, Fahrenheit 451, Grapes of Wrath, Sounder, etc. Once a class has done a wall display as a group, it would be a rich offering of extra credit or bonus activity as part of a menu of projects to choose from when covering a literary selection.

Gail Lindenberg is an English and Humanities teacher at Nogales High School in La Puente, California.