'To Kill a Mockingbird' Collaborative Character Analysis

Each year, Ms. Barnhart’s eighth grade Language Arts students read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and conduct a thorough literary analysis that examines the book’s themes, motifs, and literary techniques. This year, students worked in pairs to create life-size character representations of the iconic novel’s main characters.
The partner groups drew, and in some cases built, full-body models of their chosen characters, reflecting ten or more physical and personality traits that define the character and their role in the story. Each character trait had to be supported by a quote from the book.
Some traits had to be linked to specific body parts:

• Heart -- What is their goal in life?
• Eyes -- How to they see the world?
• Hands -- What do they do and how to they relate to others?
• Head -- What are their thoughts and feelings?
• Feet -- What is the character’s destiny?

Students also had to write a five-paragraph character analysis comparing and contrasting the character as described in the beginning versus the end of the novel, connecting character development to the plot and interactions with other characters.
Partner groups then gave oral presentations to their classmates, highlighting the choices they made to portray their characters. They used direct quotes to capture specific character traits and provided examples to support their claims.
In addition to reading comprehension, annotation skills, and analytical thinking, this project required collaboration among students. Partners had to agree on how to divide responsibilities to meet deadlines, co-produce the physical model, co-write the narrative, and then team up for the final presentation.
Here is what some of the students had to say about this project:

• Charlie: “I liked how we got to work with partners. I also like how we got to dive deeper into an obscure character in the novel.”
• Carissa: “I enjoyed the amount of freedom we were given to create our project.”
• Lucy: “We could choose our own characters and take things we learned and make them a reality.”
• Ian: “I think the free way that we were allowed to design really triggered us creatively.”
• Christina: “I really liked that we got the freedom to make our own creative choices. We got to think out of the structured box we are used to in school, and try something out of the ordinary.”
• Emily: “I liked that it was very different and hands on.

Photos can be viewed on Facebook.

Barnesville School of Arts & Sciences is an independent private school in Montgomery County, Maryland offering innovative preschool through 8th grade programs. Cross-curricular teaching encourages students to explore how subjects relate to one another, helping them to make connections that spark inquiry and deepen understanding. Small classes enable skilled teachers to engage each child in an academically challenging environment. Our 30-acre campus is our extended classroom, and we integrate nature into everyday learning.”