Fiction Writing Inquiry Project
“Multiple Choice Story Writing: An Approach to Teaching Characterization by Jeffery Sommers provides teachers a detailed example of how to ease students into understanding characterization. This article focuses on incoming college students and their struggle in analyzing literature. Sommer describes students’ hesitance and is honest in admitting that students are generally in his class because they need to meet a requirement. Therefore, Sommers understands that he will meet resistance in his classroom and has to find ways of teaching that will engage even the most detached students. In addition, because students do not generally look forward to taking English courses, Sommers develops a way to have his students get more involved and allow them to handle literature in a more manageable way.
In order to help students understand the study of characterization in literature, Sommers utilizes the multiple choice story writing exercise in his characterization lesson plan. Before having students read and analyze a literary work, Sommer does this in-class assignment in which students have to develop a character using a preset multiple choice story handout Sommer passes out. The handout allows students to create a character, so to speak, and this exercise is crafted in a way that allows students to think about who they want to create and gives them options to choose from. After having students work on the handout, Sommers begins his discussion on characterization. This part of the discussion can take several paths. Sommers mentions he has had an overall class discussion where he would pick on students and discuss that student’s character. Also, Sommers has split his class into pairs and have had the students compare and contrast the characters they have created; he then has a full class discussion on what they discuss. Both ways appear effective in that they allow students to discuss character building with their classmates and helps them comprehend how they come up with their personas.
H. J. Ortiz 