When Characters Come Alive

Kirstie Cooper’s ELA class at Adams Middle School is one that students are consistently engaged, challenged, and having fun. She takes everyday lessons and turns them into learning experiences for her students. 

"All Summer in a Day" is a Science Fiction short story by Ray Bradbury. Cooper gave her students a digital copy though Google Classroom, which streamlines the process of sharing files between teachers and students. As they read the story they used Kami to annotate the text. Students focused on the characterization of Margot as they read.When finished, an analysis of the text which included looking at elements such as point of view, figurative language, and theme was done. Once students completed that task, they began compiling all of their knowledge of the text to incorporate into the final task.

To begin, Cooper used Flippity to do a random group generator. The kids weren’t thrilled that they didn’t get to choose groups, but Flippity eliminated that potential management struggle. Next, students created a Google Doc, which they collaborated with each other on, shared with the teacher, and begin creating a script. Students were tasked with creating a “talk show” style script where there would be hosts who interviewed the two main characters of “All Summer in a Day”, Margot and William. Students had to create 3 questions per guest and formulate their response based on inferences from the text and the characterization of Margot and William. Finally, once students finished their script, they used Flipgrid to record themselves hosting their talk show. This gave quiet students a voice, it allowed us to see the profound thoughts you didn't know were there, and took their learning to a deeper level than you thought possible for this learning opportunity.

Student Talk Show Example

Student Talk Show Example