By Yolanda Padilla

1. Developing a Character
Unit: Short Stories
By: Yolanda Padilla Lebrón

2. Demo: Introduction
 University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
 ENGL 3202, Reading and Writing Composition II
 I have been teaching for a year.
 My classroom is plain, simple, it does not have
technology.
 Daily schedule: ECA, (Explore, Conceptualize and
Apply)
 Community- College level students
 Basic english, requisite for graduation

3. Approach, Strategy or Method:
 Focus on process rather than on product. According to
Brown (2o07), the writing process:
 Let students discover what they want to say as they write
 Help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting,
drafting and rewriting.
 Give students time to write.
 Graham and Arthur (2007)tell us in their book “Best
Practices in Promoting Motivation for Writing” that we can
empower writing if we give our students writing
experiences that are:
 enjoyable,
 pertinent and
 related to their emotions and interest.

4. My student’s interests:
 Conduct a needs assessment
 At the end of the semester I gave them an open ended
questionnaire. The majority said that they enjoyed
drama. One student said:
 “I enjoyed essays, journals, oral presentations, etc
but I especially loved drama. It was funny”.
Therefore I decided to use performance based activities
where the students could relate their classroom
experiences with their real life situations.

5. Pictures:

6. My teaching philosophy
 Pragmatism- (experimentalism)- the reality is the
interaction with the individual with environment or
experience; it is always changing
 Theory of education:
 Progressivism- (rooted in pragmatism)- To educate
the individual according to his or her interests and
needs.
 One of it’s proponents is Dewey

7. Activity:
 Developing a character
 Teaching objective:
 After listening to a power point presentation and completing two classroom activities
the students will develop a character.
 Duration
 The activity can be adapted for high school students and middle school students.
 It might take 3 or 4 classes (if the students are college level students)

8. Activity:
 Steps:
 Show power point presentation (tips)
 Show sample video of a character
 Ask students to work in pairs interviewing each other using the handout
titled “Character Information”.
 The students will imagine that they are creating a Facebook profile for their
characters and will fill out the Facebook handout .
 The students will read what they wrote in front of the classroom.
(performance activity).

9. Developing a Character of Fiction
 Unit: Short Stories

10. Developing a character

11. What do I need to know?
 Characters are the most important element in fiction –
 It is through their thoughts, speech, and actions in
which your story is told.
 What is the secret to build believable characters?
 ‘unique traits’ to
 ‘a common emotional plane with the reader’
 and providing him with a realistic context.

12. Developing a character
 In simplest terms, to build a believable character you
must know your character.
 He/she must become like a
real person/ real context

13. Example: Video
 John Leguizamo
 The year 1991,
 show Mambo Mouth (1991) (TV),
 he portrayed seven different Latino characters.
 The witty and incisive show was a smash hit.
 Controversial topics
 You can adapt your video according to your
audience.

14. Techniques to get to know your
character
 There are many techniques to get to know your
characters
 – The main one being the character profile.
- Another technique is to interview the character
- Studying real people

15. Character profile:
 Height, weight, hair & eye  Habits
color and age  Quirks or eccentricities
 Temperament  Likes/ dislikes
 Moral/ ethical/ religious  Fears or phobias
belief  Short and long term goals
 Political stance  Hopes and dreams
 Hobbies
Fill out handout
“Character Information”

16. Constructing a “real” profile
 Imagine that you are going to open an account for your
character on Facebook.
 What do you need to know about your character?
What information will you write on his profile?
 Fill out the Facebook profile sheet that we will provide.

17. Character presentations

18. Conclusion
 It is important to take into consideration our students
likes, dislikes, feelings etc. when developing our lesson
plans.
 We can empower writing through creative writing
activities and performance based activities.
 It is very useful to teach writing using performance
based activities because the students also practice
their oral skills.