Learning Piece Reflection

The picture above is of a final project for my literature group.  Over the past couple of weeks, we have been reading Madeleine L'Engle's A Ring of Endless Light.  We have been focusing on characters and themes.  The standards I have been focusing on are:

Reading Standards for Literature Key Ideas and Details #2, Grade 8:  Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

Reading Standards for Literature Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #7, Grade 8: Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.

In class discussions, we have spent time talking about each of the main characters--their physical descriptions, their personalities, how they factor in the story.  We are currently watching the movie, and the students will be writing paragraphs about how the portrayal of the characters in the movie (which differs from the book) changes the overall plot and themes of the story.  Since I knew we were going to be doing this final writing assignment, I wanted students to create their own "cast of characters" before watching the movie.  

Throughout the movie cast project, I reminded students to really focus on how L'Engle describes the characters.  She is very descriptive about both characters personalities and physical appearance.  Students, in groups of 2 and 3, cast different celebrities in each role.  When the students presented their poster of the cast, they explained why they chose each person for each role.

This project relates to the first listed standard, about determining the theme and its relationship to characters.  I wanted the students to understand why understanding the characters is crucial toward understanding the theme of the book as a whole.  I think this piece of assessment was successful.  We worked on our cast during class time, and I was able to model for the students how I chose different people for the roles (I created my own poster as well).  The students were able to express very clearly how they used the text to create their own cast.