Character Counts

Right now I'm reading Dracula by Bram Stoker.  I checked this book out of the library because it's on so many must-read lists.  I've read everything by Anne Rice, and I made it (barely) to the end of Twilight--how could I have missed the granddaddy of them all, the Count?

I'm only halfway through, but now I know why you must read this book--it's absolutely brilliant.  Stoker brings out the narrative using numerous points of view and through various forms of documentation.  At one moment you are reading a diary entry from solicitor Jonathan Harker, and the next you're spying on the captain's log of the cargo ship Demeter.

It made me think about teaching point of view in the classroom.  You can talk about character motivation until you're blue in the face, but it won't mean anything if the kids don't experience and play with the concept of motivation firsthand.  The best way to do this is through theater.

To scaffold the concept, start with something easy.  In pairs, give each kid a different motivation--it's best if the character goals have nothing to do with each other.  For example,

Kid 1:  a child trying to convince a parent to get a puppy
Kid 2:  a parent trying to fix a leaky sink

Remind the kids to focus on two things:  What do you want?  How are you going to get it?  That's your motivation.

Once they've had a little experience with this, put them in small groups and have them act in a setting like the zoo or a department store.  The students must agree on and pick different roles in the setting.  Then each student decides privately what their motivation is.  And the acting begins.

Bring it a step further, having them act out the motivations of characters in a story you have just read.  You can have them start by brainstorming on graphic organizers the motivations of different characters.

And finally, try a story that they haven't read yet.  Which brings me back to Dracula.  The reading level of Dracula is way beyond the ability of my fourth graders, but I'd like them to experience the story in a deeper way than the comic books offer.  So, I'm assigning them characters and character motivations.  I haven't finished the book yet, so these are portrayals I just made on the fly--I'm sure I'll get a deeper understanding as I work through the book.

What's my motivation?

Count Dracula:  You want to fill the world with vampires.
Jonathan Harker: You want to escape the castle Dracula and return home to your fiance, Mina.
Mina Murray: You want to create a perfect household and support your fiance, Jonathan.
Van Helsing: You want to protect people from vampires.
John Seward:  You want to understand and treat psychosis.
Lucy Westenra: You want to party and get the attention of potential husbands.

Put them in one big room and see what happens!  How fun is this?  Try it!  The opportunities are endless as kids explore the ideas of character, motivation, and point of view.  It will increase their reading comprehension, improve their creative writing, and help them become a more empathic person.  It's a win-win-win situation.

So, when you're playing a character like the Count, remember that character counts.