Lesson Summary:For pre-assessment, the teacher will ask the students to recall memorable characters from other stories and state what about their personalities made them unique. The teacher will assign the students to bring in an appropriate photograph from a magazine or newspaper of either a famous person or an unknown model. The teacher will also assign the students to write an appropriate line of dialogue as a caption or in a sound balloon that captures what they perceive to be the subject’s personality. The teacher will then distribute copies of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” and explain the radical nature of the “bob cut” in the 1920s. Gifted readers will read the roles of the characters. The teacher will guide analysis of how dialogue reveals character in the story. For Guided Practice, students will write the scene in which Bernice bobs her hair and develop character through dialogue. Advanced students will read the entire story and note how dialogue reveals character, while Struggling Learners will analyze their own stories.
Lesson Objectives:
The students will know…
- the importance of character to narrative.
- how dialogue develops character.
- analyze character in terms of dialogue.
- identify characteristics of dialogue.
Learning Styles Targeted:
x / Visual / x / Auditory / x / Kinesthetic/Tactile
Pre-Assessment: Ask students to name memorable characters that they have read in other stories or seen in movies or TV and state what about their personalities makes them unique.
Whole-Class Instruction
Materials Needed: 1 Copy of excerpt from “Bernice Bobs her Hair”* per student; notebooks; pens and pencils.
Procedure:
1)Ask students to bring in a photograph of a headshot from a magazine or newspaper. The shot could be of someone known, as found in a news story, or unknown, as found in an advertisement. Ask students to write a caption of one line of dialogue that they think expresses the character of the person in the photograph. Even if the person is known, the line must still be invented. Ask students to show their photographs, read their captions, and explain why they think the caption captures what they imagine to be the person’s character.
2)Explain to students that the “bob cut” was a women’s hairdo that was popular in the 1920s. Explain that it began during World War I when women cut their hair short to participate in war work. By the 1920s, it was extremely fashionable. However, many people still found it scandalous, even immoral, that a woman would cut her hair so that it resembled a man’s.
3)Assign roles of Bernice, Charley, G. Reece, and the narrator. Have students read the story out loud.
4)Ask students’ reaction to Bernice’s last line in the story: ”You’ve either got to amuse people or feed ‘em or shock ‘em.” Ask what this reveals about Bernice’s character. Elicit that she is always conscious of her audience and how to play them if not manipulate them.
5)Ask what other lines of dialogue express Bernice’s character. Point students to Bernice’s line that to bob her hair “It’s such a sure and easy way of attracting attention you see.” Point to her line that she will sell seats at the barber shop and her comment that she wants to be a society vampire.
6)Ask what lines of dialogue indicate the character of Charley and G. Reese. Point to G. Reece’s statement that he will take a box seat when Bernice gets her hair cut. Elicit that he is attracted to Bernice. His comment “Do you believe in bobbed hair?” Shows that he thinks of it as something exotic. Point out that while Charley says very little, the narrator says that he is flattered by Bernice’s attention.
7)Point out that dialogue reveals and develops character. Pay attention to how dialogue reveals the uniqueness of a character, and exchanges between characters disclose how they change within a story.
8)For independent practice, challenge students to write a scene in which they imagine what happens when Bernice bobs her hair. Have them use dialogue comparable to what they have seen the characters use thus far to show their feelings and personalities.
Advanced Learner
Materials Needed:1 copy of entire story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”* per student; notebooks; pens and pencils.
Procedure:
1) Have students read the entire story and summarize what happens. Challenge them to show how dialogue reveals character throughout the story.
Struggling Learner
Materials Needed: 1 copy of excerpt from “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”* per student; notebooks; pens and pencils.
Procedure:
1) Have students return to the scene that they wrote in step 8 and write a paragraph explaining how the dialogue they used developed the characters.
*see supplemental resources
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