After finishing the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, we commenced discussing why Harper Lee was so purposeful in so many of her choices especially in the way she uses characters, events, and dialogue to address theme. Students had to choose a topic (courage, growing up, prejudice, social inequality, etc) and list 4 or more events that addressed that event. Students then needed to think, (yeah, we actually asked them to think!), about how the theme was specifically addressed in those events, and what the author was trying to communicate through those events. Then, students had to create an original statement about the theme they chose. It was a great lesson to get them thinking about topics vs theme, and how to write an original thesis statement for their final essay assessment.
The next day, we had them use their knowledge of theme again, but with a twist that included characterization and fun!
I began by giving them specific instructions on how I wanted the poster created, what the groups were, and then I gave them an example using my own face. Let me tell you, they were horrified that my face was on their paper. It was awesome lol.
Below are examples of the finished product. All my co-teacher and I provided them was a poster paper with a character's name and picture. We also gave them color-coded speech bubbles that were cut out from a template beforehand.
Downloads: TKAM Poster Project Handout
