The Major Impact of Minor Characters in the Lives of Immigrant Heroes
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- Resources & Preparation |
- Instructional Plan |
- Related Resources |
- Standards
Overview
This lesson allows the use of a graphic novel and independent research to help students identify and analyze the major influences of a real-life immigrant hero, whether in childhood or adulthood, that propelled them to be a major contributor to American innovation.
Students will read Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book with a focus on analyzing the influence that one of the minor/background characters had on the main character of each comic. After reading the comic, students will evaluate which minor character had the biggest influence on the main character’s life and why. Students will interpret the correlation between the minor character’s influence to the level of success of the main character. Students will be able to create an interpretive essay explaining what life would have been like for the person if this minor character was not an influence, and how that lack of influence impacted the innovation of America. Lastly, students will take a look at their own gifts and talents, explain who is influencing them or not, and create a comic where they would write their future heroism in American innovation that would include the influence of a minor character.
This lesson approach can be utilized with a variety of comics, though it has been tailored uniquely with Great Immigrants, Great Americans as the focus.
Featured Resources
- Digital or printout copies of Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book
- “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros
- Roles of minor characters
- List of academic and tier two vocabulary to help students understand pertinent words such as:
- Academic: character, minor characters, main character, evaluate, analyze, interpret, character development, predictions, draft, revision, peer review, rubric
- Tier Two: correlation, assimilate, hero, influence, innovation, role, comics
Additional resources:
Lesson that analyzes the minor characters in David Copperfield.
Analyzing Superheroes and Villains
Lesson that uses descriptive devices to compare and contrast superheroes versus villains.
Materials and Technology
- Document Reader (can be used to model how to analyze minor characters—by circling minor characters and writing in the margins their role to the main character, their thoughts, and influence on the main character)
- Paper/pencils
- Highlighter (to annotate)
Printouts
- Minor Characters: Who Are They? What’s Their Purpose
- List of Academic and Tier 2 Vocabulary Related to the Lesson
- “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros
Websites
The website provides quick exercises to help students create typical scenarios with a focus on character traits and development.
This website/resources allows students to choose a character to analyze based on characters’s actions, and based on how other characters see this character. The student must show evidence.
This website provides labels for the characters in a story, and allows students to identify them.
Preparation
- Print out copies of the story “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros.
- Have a list of definitions and examples of minor characters and their roles.
- Have the text Great Immigrants, Great Americans for them to read.
- Have the graphic organizer.
Student Objectives
Students will:
- be able to distinguish a minor character from a main character.
- be able to identify the influence of a minor character on a Great Immigrants, Great Americans main/hero’s character.
- be able to provide multiple pieces of evidence to support a minor character’s influence on the hero’s contribution to the world’s innovations.
- predict what life would be like for the main character and others if the minor character were not a part of the story.
- trace the impact of the minor character’s life on the main character/hero’s experience(s).
Session Introduction and Activities
(Session One)
1. Explain the definition of characters in the story, including the main and minor character, explaining the differences. Explain what defines a character: Any person, animal that has a speaking role and/or performs an action. Definitions and examples can be experienced on an anchor chart or displayed on a digital screen using Google Slides or a PowerPoint.
2. Explain the different roles of the minor characters, including but not limited to revealing a character trait of the main character, revealing setting, influencing the main character, antagonizing the main character, moving the plot, increasing the problem, or helping with the solution.
3. Read the story “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros and discuss the main character and the three minor characters and their impact on the story as a recommended introduction to these concepts. (“Charles” by Shirley Jackson is another text that can be used for middle school, while “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson can be used for high school students to focus on the impact of minor characters.)
(Session Two)
1. Read Great Immigrants, Great Americans and identify one minor character in each comic story, annotating text for at least one minor character in each story.
2. Complete the graphic organizer, providing four examples of minor characters, explaining their influence with one piece of textual evidence or from personal research.
3. Choose one of the stories from Great Immigrants, Great Americans to do a deeper dive of minor character influence. Explain rationale for choice of story/main character to explore— more specifically, the minor character—in two–five sentences.
(Session Three)
1. Brainstorm the influence of the minor character on the main character’s success. Students can achieve this by answering the following questions.
- What is the relationship between the main and minor characters?
- How long have they known one another based on the comic?
- Name a character trait of the minor/main character.
- What was the role of the minor character in the story?
- How would the main character’s life have turned out differently if the minor character was not involved, and why?
2. Write a first draft. Paragraph one can discuss the name of the comic and the success the main character had, naming the minor character and the role that character played. The second paragraph can include the student’s interpretation of life without the minor character using evidence of influence from the text and/or personal research that is cited.
3. A classmate will peer review based on the minor character’s influence, evidence, and logical interpretations and writing thoughts on the text. (This allows the students to write out cohesive thoughts using relevant evidence to explain their rationale.)
4. Students will write the final draft either on paper or Google Docs incorporating peer feedback. Students will also write a one-paragraph explanation on why revisions were made and how it improved their interpretation. The teacher can model paragraphs as needed.
Extensions
- Students can interview a person whom they deem a hero, using a list of questions that include a major influence from someone/something that aided in their success or development.
- Revise a comic from Great Immigrants, Great Americans, adding more dialogue from a minor character that demonstrates influence.
- Students perform their own research and locate another person/minor character that may have had an influence on the main character/hero in the Great Immigrants, Great Americans book and explain their impact.
From Theory to Practice
Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension
Good comprehension instruction involves explicit instruction and modeling of specific reading strategies. Students should practice the reading comprehension strategies by applying them to other texts, especially by thinking aloud, which will make them more strategic rather than impulsive in their reading responses.
Work Cited
Duke, N. K., & Pearson, P. D. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. In A. E. Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction (3rd ed.), pp. 205–242. International Reading Association.
Position Statement on the Role of Nonfiction Literature (K–12)
Contemporary nonfiction addresses historical silences; explores historic and contemporary events rooted in racism, oppression, and violence; and highlights courageous trailblazers and organized groups working toward societal transformation and liberation. It presents cutting-edge research, offering readers not just settled information, but access to emerging understandings at the vanguard of scientific knowledge and exploration.
Student Assessment / Reflections
In students’ independent reading novels, locate a minor character, provide the relationship to the main character, and how the minor character impacts the story or moves the trajectory of the story.
Related Resources
Standards
A complete listing of the standards can be found here.
1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).