L6+Martemucci,+Amanda

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, HEALTH AND REHABILITATION LESSON PLAN FORMAT**
 * UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT FARMINGTON


 * __Teacher’s Name__****:** Ms. Martemucci **__Date of Lesson__:** Lesson 6 (Self-Knowledge)
 * __Grade Level__****:** 11 **__Topic__:** Character Conflicts, //The Lovely Bones// by Alice Sebold


 * __Objectives__**
 * Student will understand that** characters have external and internal conflicts.
 * Student will know** character, point of view, conflict (external and internal), and important events and people such as: Rape and Murder of Susie, Abigail's infidelity, Life of Susie's love interest after her death, Jack's pursuit of murderer, Ruth's obsession with the dead, Ruth's relationship with Susie, Susie Salmon, Jack Salmon, Abigail Salmon, George Harvey, Lindsey Salmon, Buckley Salmon, Len Fenerman, Ray Singh, Ruth Connors, Ruana Singh, and Samuel Heckler
 * Student will be able to do** self-assess how a character's conflicts affect another.

Maine Learning Results: English Language Arts- A. Reading A2 Literary Texts Grades 9-Diploma //The Lovely Bones// by Alice Sebold //Students read text within a grade appropriate span of text complexity and present analyzes of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry using excerpts from the text to defend their assertions.//
 * __Maine Learning Results Alignment__**

Through this lesson, students will begin understanding how one character's conflicts can affect another character and cause his or her own conflicts.
 * Rationale:**

During the Circle a Sage activity, students will be discussing character's external and internal conflicts and how the main character/narrator affects/causes them. Students will be expected to participate by asking questions and joining in on the conversation to let me know how well they are understanding the concepts. I will give feedback to students on each of their eight graphic organizers before they begin writing their diary entries (two to three graphic organizers a class). Students will peer review classmates' journal entries with students sitting at the same cluster as them to give final feedback before students write the final drafts.
 * __Assessment__**
 * Formative (Assessment for Learning)**

The formative/self-assessment is for students to write a blog entry about what they learned through this lesson about character's conflicts causing another character's conflicts. They will also need to reflect on how what they learned connects to their own life in the blog. These blogs will not be graded. I will read them over to see what students have reflected on about the lesson and comment on them.

Students will be thinking in the point of view of a character other than Susie Salmon from //The Lovely Bones// by Alice Sebold, and explaining how Susie's conflicts are affecting their chosen character and causing their own external and internal conflicts. Students will write a 1-page journal/diary entry in the point of view of their chosen character for every three chapters in the novel (total of eight journal/diary entries). The students will write their final journal entries on Penzu Beta, an online diary. I will grade the journal entries with an analytic grading sheet, in which I will write comments about each journal entry and give it a certain number of points towards the final grade of the entire diary. This grading sheet will be reviewed at the beginning of the lesson and given to the students to use as a checklist as they are writing their journal entries.
 * Summative (Assessment of Learning)**


 * __Integration__**
 * Technology:** Students will be using the online diary, Penzu Beta to write and present their final journal entries. This web-based tool allows students to make their journal entries look visually stimulating in the form of an actual journal.


 * Other Content Areas:**
 * Psychology:** Students must be thinking in the mind of a character in the novel as they write their journal entries. They will need to explore the character psychologically in order to understand the character's internal and external conflicts, why they are caused, and what the character does because of them.

__Circle A Sage:__ Students will participate in a Circle a Sage activity during part of the lesson. Students who feel they know their character well can volunteer to be a "Sage," and will move to a place in the classroom that is away from another "Sage". Other students will choose a "Sage" to visit and learn about that character. I will tell students that they must even out the groups so that every "Sage" has students to have a discussion with. The "Sage" will need to discuss how Susie's conflicts have affected their chosen character and caused his or her own conflicts. Students with the "Sage" will be responsible for asking questions and commenting while also taking notes that could be helpful for them with their journal entries. After visiting a "Sage" for 10 minutes, students will move around the room to another "Sage." Students will need to visit as many "Sages" as they can in the time spent on the activity. Although students may not have the character that the "Sage" has chosen, I still want them to take notes and join in on the conversation to allow students to recognize how just one person or character's conflicts, such as Susie's, can affect so many people. At the end, there will be a 10 minute debrief for the "Sages" to get notes from fellow students.
 * __Groupings__**


 * __Differentiated Instruction__**
 * Strategies:**
 * Logical:** Students need to think deeply in the perspective of their character and about the character's problems/conflicts.
 * Verbal:** Students will be writing diary entries. I will also be reading student samples out loud for students to hear an idea of what they will be writing.
 * Visual:** The Journal/Diary graphic organizers are a visual organizational tool for students to plan their diary entries.
 * Intrapersonal:** Students will be writing their own journal entries from the perspective of a character that they get to choose.
 * Interpersonal:** Students work together in discussions during the Circle a Sage activity.
 * Kinesthetic:** Students will be moving around the room during the Circle a Sage activity.

//I will review student's IEP, 504, or ELLIDEP and make appropriate modifications and accommodations.//
 * Modifications/Accommodations**

__Absent Student:__ I will have a Wikispace set up with an agenda for each class period and the assignments that are due. When a student is absent, it is their responsibility to check the Wikispace and see what they are missing in class and assignments that are due. It is their responsibility to get any handouts or assignments from either a fellow classmate or through emailing me. It is also recommended that absent students come see me to get caught up and learn more about what happened in the class(es) that they missed. The student will also need to find a way to get their final product for the lesson to me on the day it's due if they happen to miss that day of class. If this is absolutely impossible, it is their responsibility to email me and I will work out an extension plan with the student.

Students will be using the web-based online diary, Penzu Beta, to write their final journal/diary entries in the perspective of a character besides Susie Salmon, about how Susie's conflicts affect their chosen character. This web-based tool allows students to make their journal entries look visually stimulating in the form of an actual journal. If students wish to go beyond the original objective, they can write in the perspective of their character about conflicts they are dealing with that are caused by a character other than Susie Salmon.
 * Extensions**

__For Student:__ Laptop Penzu Beta Account Copy of //The Lovely Bones// Pen/Pencil Paper Blogger Account
 * __Materials, Resources and Technology__**

__For Teacher:__ Laptop Penzu Beta Account Blogger Account Journal/Diary ([|gojournal.pdf]) Graphic Organizer How to Write a Diary Entry Handout Circle A Sage Explanation Character, Point of View, Conflict Handout Important People/Events from //The Lovely Bones// Handout Analytic Grading Sheet Student Sample

This lesson has students write a journal entry in the point of view of a member of the Corp of Discovery based on a //Lewis and Clark// program from PBS. This will be a great lesson to look at since my lesson involves students writing in the point of view of a character from //The Lovely Bones.// [] This lesson has students write diaries in the point of view of an animal or insect. Like my students, this lesson requires the students to become more acquainted with the animal they are taking the point of view of so they can truly take the persona of that animal. My students need to do this, but with a character. [] This is the Penzu Beta site. Students and myself will need to make a free account on the site, and then students will use the online diary to write and present their final journal entries. This site also allows students to share their online diary through email. Students will be emailing me their diaries when they are finished for grading. [] This is the site that students will write their self-assessment blogs on. I also have an account on this site so I can read and comment on the students' blogs. Students should already have an account on blogger from the first lesson. If not, they can make an account. [] This site explains the Circle a Sage activity that the students will be participating in during part of the lesson. [] This site has a downloadable document of how to write a diary entry. It gives a set up of how my students can set up their journal/diary entries. [] This is a powerpoint presentation on literary devices, which includes character, point of view, and conflict. Students should be aware of these literary terms from the first, third, fourth, and fifth lessons. __[]__ This is a site with a glossary of literary terms, which includes character and point of view. Students should be aware of these literary terms from the first, third, fourth, and fifth lessons. [] This site goes into more detail about internal and external conflict. It also explains the importance of conflict and how to read for conflict in a novel. Students should be aware of these concepts from the fifth lesson. [] This is a site that gives chapter summaries and character descriptions from //The Lovely Bones//. It is a good source for myself or a substitute to use for quick information when assessing students' products and conducting class discussions. [] This site gives an example of an analytic grading sheet. Although I will be making one myself, and won't be following the same exact format, this will be a good guide to start from. []
 * __Source for Lesson Plan and Research__**

I understand that students all learn in different ways. I planned this lesson so that students of different learning styles, intelligences, and levels could complete the objectives on some occasion(s) throughout the lesson.
 * __Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification and Rationale__**
 * //Standard 3 - Demonstrates a knowledge of the diverse ways in which students learn and develop by providing learning opportunities that support their intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and cultural development.//**
 * //Rationale://**

__Clipboard:__ For those students who work best when they are organized, I have incorporated a graphic organizer (Journal/Diary) to help them organize their ideas for their journal/diary entries before they begin drafting and finalizing their entries on Penzu Beta. The organizer will give students a visual representation of their notes and ideas for their journal/diary entries to make it easier for them to begin writing. __Beach Ball:__ For those students who focus well by moving around, will get the chance to move about the room during the Circle a Sage activity as students move from one "Sage" to another to learn about and discuss another character from the novel. __Microscope:__ Students who like to think logically about topics will get to in this lesson as students need to closely analyze a character and interpret how Susie's conflicts are affecting their chosen character and causing his or her own conflicts. __Puppy:__ I want all my students to feel like they are in a safe environment where they can easily talk to others around them. That is why all my lessons, including this one involve group activities (This lesson involves a Circle a Sage Activity, in which students will work in several discussion groups with several students in the class). This will allow students to get to know each other and work on collaborative skills. Students will also learn how to respect everyone's ideas through the group activity so students do not feel uncomfortable sharing.

Student will know character, point of view, conflict (external and internal), and important events and people such as: Rape and Murder of Susie, Abigail's infidelity, Life of Susie's love interest after her death, Jack's pursuit of murderer, Ruth's obsession with the dead, Ruth's relationship with Susie, Susie Salmon, Jack Salmon, Abigail Salmon, George Harvey, Lindsey Salmon, Buckley Salmon, Len Fenerman, Ray Singh, Ruth Connors, Ruana Singh, and Samuel Heckler. **Please refer to Content Notes.** //Students read text within a grade appropriate span of text complexity and present analyzes of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry using excerpts from the text to defend their assertions.// Students are reading //The Lovely Bones// by Alice Sebold, an age appropriate text, and will be writing journal/diary entries in the point of view of a character other than Susie Salmon to express how Susie's conflicts are affecting their chosen character and causing his or her own external and internal conflicts. Through this lesson, students will be able to self-assess how a character's conflicts affect another (Self-Knowledge). I am working to teach students that one person's conflicts can affect another person and even cause their own conflicts. This can be analyzed in novels and also happens in the real world.
 * //Standard 4 - Plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, curriculum goals, and learning and development theory.//**
 * //Rationale://**

__Linguistic/Verbal:__ Students will be writing diary entries. I will also be reading student samples out loud for students to hear an idea of what they will be writing. __Bodily/Kinesthetic:__ Students will be moving around the room during the Circle a Sage activity. __Intrapersonal:__ Students will be writing their own journal entries from the perspective of a character that they get to choose. __Interpersonal:__ Students work together in discussions during the Circle a Sage activity. __Logical:__ Students need to think deeply in the perspective of their character and about the character's problems/conflicts. __Visual:__ The Journal/Diary graphic organizers are a visual organizational tool for students to plan their diary entries.
 * //Standard 5 - Understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies and appropriate technology to meet students’ needs.//**
 * //Rationale://**

Students will be using the web-based online diary, Penzu Beta, to write their final diary entries in the perspective of a character besides Susie Salmon, about how Susie's conflicts affect their chosen character. This web-based tool allows students to make their journal entries look visually stimulating in the form of an actual journal. If students wish to go beyond the original objective, they can write in the perspective of their character about conflicts they are dealing with that are caused by a character other than Susie Salmon.

I have incorporated six different multiple intelligences into this lesson as I know I will have many different types of learners in the classroom that I will need to try and connect the material to. These intelligences are either used through visual samples, in-class activities, or assignments to allow different intelligences to flow throughout my lesson.

I have several opportunities for students to show their learning throughout this lesson in both formal and summative assessments because I understand that not all students can show their learning in one form. Students will be aware of various ways I am assessing them on this lesson, particularly with the blog entry and the analytic grading sheet.
 * //Standard 8 - Understands and uses a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and support the development of the learner.//**
 * //Rationale://**

During the Circle a Sage activity, students will be discussing character's external and internal conflicts and how the main character/narrator affects/causes them. Students will be expected to participate by asking questions and joining in on the conversation to let me know how well they are understanding the concepts. I will give feedback to students on each of their eight graphic organizers before they begin writing their diary entries (two to three graphic organizers a class). Students will peer review classmates' journal entries with students sitting at the same cluster as them to give final feedback before students write the final drafts. The formative/self-assessment is for students to write a blog entry about what they learned through this lesson about character's conflicts causing another character's conflicts. They will also need to reflect on how what they learned connects to their own life in the blog. These blogs will not be graded. I will read them over to see what students have reflected on about the lesson and comment on them. Students will be thinking in the point of view of a character other than Susie Salmon from //The Lovely Bones// by Alice Sebold, and explaining how Susie's conflicts are affecting their chosen character and causing their own external and internal conflicts. Students will write a 1-page journal/diary entry in the point of view of their chosen character for every three chapters in the novel (total of eight journal/diary entries). The students will write their final journal entries on Penzu Beta, an online diary. I will grade the journal entries with an analytic grading sheet, in which I will write comments about each journal entry and give it a certain number of points towards the final grade of the entire diary. This grading sheet will be reviewed at the beginning of the lesson and given to the students to use as a checklist as they are writing their journal entries.

The classroom will be arranged in clusters. This will help with arranging for the Circle a Sage Activity as well as during the peer review session of student's journal/diary entries. This arrangement will allow little, if at all, rearrangement of the desks during the lesson.
 * __Teaching and Learning Sequence__****:**

Agenda Day 1 Presentation of Student Sample(s) (10 min) Brief Discussion about Student Sample(s)/How to set up a diary entry (Hand out "How to Write a Diary Entry" Handout) (15 min) Discuss Objective (Hand out Analytic Grading Sheet) (10 min) Hand out and have students choose a character and begin working on Journal/Diary Graphic Organizers-Students must write on a piece of paper what character they are deciding to write their entries in the point of view of for teacher record (30 min) Collect any finished Graphic Organizers for feedback (5 min) Set up Penzu Beta accounts/Conclusion-Homework is to work on more graphic organizers (Students should complete at least two graphic organizers for each class period) (10 min)

Agenda Day 2 Pass back graphic organizers with feedback, collect any completed organizers from homework (5 min) Class time to work on writing drafts from feedback/Working on graphic organizers/Peer Review-Students need to situate in clusters with students with the same character. Anytime they want to have someone peer review their entries, they can just ask a student(s) in the cluster to peer review for them. (65 min) Conclusion-Homework is to work on drafts on Penzu Beta from feedback on graphic organizers. Work on filling out more organizers (5 min)

Agenda Day 3 Pass Back graphic organizers, collect any completed organizers from homework (5 min) Circle a Sage Activity/Debrief (60 min (50 min of activity-10 min of discussing what students learned about other characters/"Sages" take notes)) Pass back handed in graphic organizers from the beginning of class/Class time to work on drafts from feedback on organizers (10 min) Conclusion-Homework is to finish last of graphic organizers, write drafts from feedback, and begin writing final drafts on Penzu Beta of entries peer reviewed by classmates (5 min)

Agenda Day 4 Pass back any graphic organizers with feedback, collect rest of graphic organizers (5 min) Class time to work on writing drafts from feedback/Working on graphic organizers/Peer Review-Students need to situate in clusters with students with the same character. Anytime they want to have someone peer review their entries, they can just ask a student(s) in the cluster to peer review for them. (70 min) Pass back last of graphic organizers while students are still working so they can start drafting and getting them peer reviewed (Halfway through the 70 min) Conclusion/Final Questions-Homework is to finalize journal entries on Penzu Beta for next class. If some drafts aren't peer reviewed, students need to review them themselves keeping in mind the feedback I gave them on the graphic organizers. (5 min)

Agenda Day 5 Any last minute finalizing of journal entries if necessary (10 min) Emailing of Penzu Beta diaries to Ms. Martemucci (10 min) Sharing of some journal entries by students-students need to share at least one entry (40-45 min) Writing/Posting of Blog Entries (10-15 min) Final Thoughts (5 min)

Students will understand that characters have external and internal conflicts. I will explain to students that there can be instances where a person's conflicts can affect you in some way and may even cause your own conflicts. This happens between characters in pieces of literature. //Students read text with a grade appropriate span of text complexity and present analyzes of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry using excerpts from the text to defend their assertions//. I will read students a student sample of one or two diary entries to give them an example of what they will be creating in this lesson. A brief discussion will follow about the student sample and how to write a diary entry.
 * Where, Why, What, Hook, Tailors:** Linguistic/Verbal, Visual

Students will know character, point of view, conflict, and important events and people such as: Rape and Murder of Susie, Abigail's infidelity, Life of Susie's love interest after her death, Jack's pursuit of murderer, Ruth's obsession with the dead, Ruth's relationship with Susie, Susie Salmon, Jack Salmon, Abigail Salmon, George Harvey, Lindsey Salmon, Buckley Salmon, Len Fenerman, Ray Singh, Ruth Connors, Ruana Singh, and Samuel Heckler**.** **Please refer to the content notes.** Students will each pick a character (other than the narrator/main character) and will fill out Journal/Diary graphic organizers for each diary entry. They are to write in the perspective of that character and how the narrator/main character is affecting his or her own conflicts (eight entries total, one for every three chapters, about 1 page in length).
 * Equip, Explore, Tailors:** Linguistic/Verbal, Intrapersonal, Visual, Logical

Student will be able to self-assess how a character's conflicts affect another. Towards the end of the lesson, students will participate in a Circle a Sage activity (This is placed on the third day of the lesson to allow students the time to get to know their chosen character more over the first two days of the lesson). Students who feel they know their character well can volunteer to be a "Sage" and will move to a place in the classroom that is away from another "Sage". Other students will choose a "Sage" to visit and learn about that character. I will tell students that they must even out the groups so that every "Sage" has students to have a discussion with. The "Sage" will need to discuss how Susie's conflicts have affected their chosen character and caused his or her own conflicts. Students with the "Sage" will be responsible for asking questions and commenting while also taking notes that could be helpful for them with their journal entries. After visiting a "Sage" for 10 minutes, students will move around the room to another "Sage." Students will visit as many "Sages" as they can in the time spent on the activity. Although students may not have the character that the "Sage" has chosen, I still want them to take notes and join in on the conversation to allow students to recognize how just one person or character's conflicts, such as Susie's, can affect so many people. At the end, there will be a 10 minute debrief for the "Sages" to get notes from fellow students. During the Circle a Sage activity students will be discussing character's external and internal conflicts and how the main character/narrator affects/causes them**.** I will give feedback to students on each of their eight graphic organizers before they begin writing their diary entries on Penzu Beta (at least two graphic organizers are due each class period throughout the lesson)**.** I will give students the opportunity to write and revise their diary entries in class**.** Students will peer review classmates' journal entries with students sitting at the same cluster as them to give final feedback before students write the final drafts.
 * Experience, Rethink, Revise, Rehearse, Refine, Tailors:** Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Linguistic/Verbal, Logical

After presenting some of their finalized journal entries and emailing the entire journal/diary to me through the Penzu Beta site, students will write a blog entry about what they learned through this lesson about character's conflicts causing another character's conflicts. They will also need to reflect on how what they learned connects to their own life in the blog. These blogs will not be graded. I will read them over to see what students have reflected on about the lesson and comment on them. I will grade the journal entries with an analytic grading sheet, in which I will write comments about each journal entry and give it a certain number of points towards the final grade of the entire diary. This grading sheet will be reviewed at the beginning of the lesson and given to the students to use as a checklist as they are writing their journal entries.
 * Evaluate, Tailors:** Intrapersonal, Linguistic/Verbal

[|Point of View:] The vantage point from which a story is told. The way the events of a story are conveyed to the reader. Told through narrative from author to reader. There are [|four types of point of view/narration]. First person narrative is a character (typically the main character) in the story. He or she can express his or her own feelings and thoughts as they tell the story but they cannot express those of other's unless told by another character. This narrator refers to him or herself as "I" (Example: Susie Salmon tells //The Lovely Bones// in first person narrative). Third person objective is a narrator who is an outsider and not a character. The narrator tells what is seen and heard but cannot express what characters are thinking. Third person limited is a narrator who is an outsider and not a character who can tell what is seen, heard, and what one specific character is thinking. Omniscient is an all-knowing narrator. The narrator sees everything and hears everything, and can see into the minds of several characters in the story. (For this lesson, students need to be writing their journal/diary entries in the point of view of a character other than Susie Salmon. For writing diary entries, they will need to write in first-person narrative)
 * __Content Notes__**

[|Character:] a person or character in a story, play or literary work. Every character has his or her own personality, and his or her mannerisms, attitudes, and appearances affect other literary devices such as theme, and setting. (Example: Susie Salmon, in //The Lovely Bones,// is a character who is murdered in the beginning of the novel and the rest of the novel focuses on how her friends and family cope and try to find her missing body and killer). There are two types of characters:[| static and dynamic]. Static characters change very little or not at all in a piece of literature. Dynamic characters change a lot due to the events that occur in the piece of literature (Examples: Abigail Salmon is a dynamic character in //The Lovely Bones,// whose mannerisms and life-style change after Susie's death. She begins to distance herself from her husband and later leaves her family and moves out to California. George Harvey is a static character who continues his pattern of murdering young women after he kills Susie). (For this lesson, students will need to pick a character (other than Susie Salmon), dynamic or static, and write eight journal entries; one for every three chapters in the novel, depicting what happened to their chosen character. Students need to particularly focus on how Susie's conflicts are affecting their character and causing their own conflicts. )

[|Conflict:] conflict is a struggle between opposing characters or opposing forces in a piece of literature. Conflict helps create the plot of the story. There are four types of conflict in literature: man versus man (external conflict), man versus nature, man versus society, and man versus self (internal conflict). Man versus man is a conflict between one person and another (Example: Susie has a conflict with George Harvey when he kills her). Man versus nature is a conflict that a person faces when he or she encounters with the forces of nature (Example: In Lesson 1, students listened to and analyzed the song, [|Fireflies] by Owl City. Some of the lyrics deal with a man versus nature conflict. The Owl City singer is singing about how he wishes he could fight the forces of growing older in the lines "I'd like to make myself believe / That planet earth moves slowly/ It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake while I'm asleep / Cause everything is never as it seems / When I fall asleep "). Man versus society is a conflict between a person/people and the views of society (Example: Racism/Prejudice). Man versus self is a conflict that an individual has with his or her consciousness (Example: In //The Lovely Bones,// Abigail has a hard time dealing with her feelings of grief with feelings of passion as she pursues an affair with Len Fenerman as a mechanism to deal with Susie's death). (For this lesson, students will need to express in their journal/diary entries their chosen character's external and internal conflicts, which resulted from Susie's conflicts.)

[|External Conflict:] A struggle between a character and an outside force is an external conflict. Characters may face several types of outside forces. The outside force may be another character. It may be the character and the community. The outside force may also be forces of nature. For example, a story might be the main character struggling against the arctic cold.
 * Man against man.
 * Man against nature.

[|Internal Conflict:] A struggle that takes place in a character's mind is called internal conflict. For example, a character may have to decide between right and wrong or between two solutions to a problem. Sometimes, a character must deal with his or her own mixed feelings or emotions.
 * Man against himself.

[|Importance of Conflict in a Story:] Conflict is necessary to every story. In short stories, there is usually one major conflict. In longer stories, there could be several conflicts. Conflict adds excitement and suspense to a story. The conflict usually becomes clear to the beginning of a story. As the plot unfolds, the reader starts to wonder what will happen next and how the characters will handle the situation. Many readers enjoy trying to predict the final outcome. The excitement usually builds to a high point, or climax. The climax is the turning point of the story. Something has happened to resolve the conflict. (For this lesson, this information will be helpful to allow students to understand why they are learning about external and internal conflicts.)

[|How to look for Conflicts:] As you read a story: (This will be helpful for students to know as they are looking for their chosen character's conflicts that they need to express in their journal/diary entries.)
 * 1) identify the main characters
 * 2) decide what conflict they face
 * 3) look for steps they take to settle that conflict
 * 4) see if the steps cause other conflict
 * 5) watch for clues and try to predict what the characters will do
 * 6) enjoy the buildup of suspense
 * 7) put yourself in the story
 * 8) decide if you would have solved the conflict in the same way

[|The Lovely Bones Important People/Events:] (Students are allowed to pick any of these character's (besides Susie Salmon) to take the point of view of and express their external and internal conflicts in their journal/diary entries. I also have a list of possible events that involve some of the possible characters that students may choose and write about.)

__Susie Salmon:__ Susie is the narrator of the story. She has been raped and murdered and feels enormous pain, even in heaven, for what has happened to her. However, she also presents careful analyses herself about her family and friends. In these, we see her great love and compassion for those she misses dreadfully. We must not forget that she is also a character who must be examined for her own grief: Susie doesn’t want to be dead and she can’t break the chains that bind her to Earth. So we follow her agony as she slowly grieves her own death and says goodbye to the people she loves.

__Jack Salmon:__ As Susie’s father, he feel enormous guilt for having failed to protect his little girl, but he also remains devoted to her memory and actively seeks her appearance in some manner in his life. He is a man who is faced as well with the loss of his wife who leaves the family to resolve her own grief. He then takes over as father and mother to his two remaining children, bearing the burden of their pain as well as his own.

__Abigail Salmon:__ Abigail grieves several things: the loss of her daughter, the collapse of her family, and the loss of the life she never had the opportunity to live. She is profoundly unhappy even before Susie’s death and so she has tremendous hurdles to overcome. She is selfish and unfeeling as well when she has an affair with the detective who is investigating Susie’s death and when she decides to leave her family for seven years to take care of herself. In the end, she recognizes her faults and her mistakes and moves to rectify them for her family. She is able to let go of Susie and let go of the childish desires that caused her to walk away.

__George Harvey:__ He is the monster who rapes and kills Susie. He has been killing girls and women for a long time and has never been caught for his deeds. The author presents him in a somewhat sympathetic light, however, by showing the horrible childhood he experienced and how he draws buildings and builds dollhouses to keep himself from killing. Even though it doesn’t work, the fact that he makes the attempt gives him some sympathy. In the end, though, he is a pathetic horror of a human being, who seeks out the grave of one of his victims and when he discovers it’s empty, he sleeps in it. He dies through the will of Susie who needs him to be dead so she protects any other girls or women he might kill and so she can break the bonds of Earth.

__Lindsey Salmon:__ Lindsey is the one of the family who suffers in silence and wills herself to be strong for everyone else. Yet, her pain is deep and she bears many burdens: because she looks like Lindsey, people see only a bloody body when they look at her; her mother has shut her out, lies to her and then leaves; the world moves on and soon comes to forget what happened to their family; she has a six year old brother who must lean on her when their mother leaves; and her father has lost much of his will to live. Because she is the strong one and is living the life Susie never had, Susie follows her and this is a burden that Lindsey feels only subconsciously. Nonetheless, it is a chain that binds her to her dead sister.

__Buckley Salmon:__ As the little four year old brother of a murdered sister, he might have been depicted as just a kid who doesn’t understand what has happened. However, the author shows him as being a very wise child who not only depends on his father and Lindsey, but watches over them as well. He sees and talks to Susie and he holds her in his heart just like everyone else. He builds a fort for her; he saves the little, old shoe from the Monopoly game, because it was her favorite; and he plants a garden just for her. He hates his mother for a long time, because she leaves him. But in the end, he too is ready to accept what has happened in the past and let it go.

__Len Fenerman:__ He is the detective who investigates Susie’s case. He has been doing this work for a long time and it’s obvious he is on the verge of burn-out. He lives in a lonely apartment above a barber shop and spends his time trying to solve cases of girls and women who have been murdered. He carries their pictures in his wallet and writes the date the case is solved on the back. Many of them remain blank. He is over-whelmed by his inability to solve all these cases as well as Susie’s, and turns to Susie’s mother for escape. We realize that what he’s done - the affair with Abigail - is reprehensible, but the loneliness he endures both before and after is heart-wrenching. In the end, he is left with nothing: George Harvey has not been caught; Abigail has returned to her husband; he has not found Susie’s body; he has many cases unsolved; and what’s even more devastating, his wife committed suicide and he has no idea why. He’s a lost soul, too, in some ways just like George Harvey.

__Ray Singh:__ Ray is the man who should have been Susie’s soul-mate. He too is tied to her memory and can never completely put her out of his mind. He is not very popular at school, like Susie, and he feels shy about making his feelings known. As a result, one kiss holds him to her for a very long time. In the end, the miracle that allows Susie to inhabit Ruth’s body creates closure for both of them. They are able to fulfill what death had denied them: the expression of their love. From that point on, Ray, now a doctor, is able to let Susie go and live his life knowing the possibilities of Heaven.

__Ruth Connors:__ She is depicted as a young girl whose status as a kind of outcast among her classmates makes her obsessive about Susie. Susie had touched her as she died in the cornfield and began to rise to heaven. This has a profound impact on Ruth who spends the rest of her life believing she has the second sight and can see girls and women who have been raped and murdered. She wanders New York City, looking to protect any living girls and women from becoming victims and she prays for the ones who do. In the end, because she wants it so much for Susie and because Susie wants it so much as well, she allows her body to be used by Susie to make love to Ray. However, she never lives a normal life again.

__Ruana Singh:__ She is like an alter-ego for Abigail Salmon. They both feel trapped in a situation they never wanted and look to escape somehow. However, Ruana ultimately doesn’t have the courage to leave, because of the bond she has with her son, Ray. She stays and tries to forget that soon her son will grow up and move away while her husband never comes home, because he is married to his ambition. Eventually, however, the word //divorce// will begin to ring in her mind and like Abigail, she will find her way.

__Samuel Heckler:__This character is a life-saver, particularly Lindsey’s life. He is a heroic figure who stands ever supportive and ever loving to help Lindsey, and even the rest of her family, deal with the tragedy of Susie’s death and the temporary collapse of the family. He first talks to Lindsey at school after Susie is murdered and then he brings her a Christmas gift that first holiday, just three weeks after Susie died. The gift is a pendant with a heart broken in two, as is Lindsey’s, but he wears the other half to show her he “has her back.” He stays beside her for the next seven years and finally proposes to her. He has been committed to Lindsey for all that time and he will stay with her forever.

__Rape and Murder of Susie :__ (Chapter 1) Susie Salmon (like the fish) introduces herself and gives the reader all the details of her murder. She was 14 years old and she took a shortcut home from school through the cornfield behind the junior high. It was already dark, because it was December 6, 1973. She wasn’t paying much attention and so was startled when Mr. Harvey, her neighbor just two doors away, spoke to her. Because she had been taught to respect authority and he was an adult, Susie spoke to him. She is surprised he knows her name, because no one in the neighborhood ever really knew him. Her __father__ had spoken to him once, but they had never socialized. Mr. Harvey lures her into a hiding place he’s made in the ground, and Susie naively goes inside with him. In fact, she even tells him it’s “neato!” He offers her a Coke and convinces her to take off her parka. When she becomes nervous and tries to leave, he blocks the entrance with his body. She tells us that she fought as hard as she could, but it just wasn’t enough. At the time, she says this must be the worst thing in the world to have a sweating man on top of you and be trapped inside the earth with no one knowing where you are. She pleads with him over and over, but he finally shuts her up by stuffing the hat with bells her mother had made her into her mouth. The only sound she made after that was the “weak tinkling of bells.” She knows he is going to kill her, especially when he reaches for the knife on the ledge with his razor and shaving cream. He makes her say she loves him, and she does, hoping he might let her go. But “the end comes anyway.” After Mr. Harvey rapes Susie, he stabs her to death and then cuts her body into pieces, inadvertently leaving behind her elbow, which is later brought home by the Gilberts’ dog.

__Abigail's infidelity:__ (Chapter 12) When Jack is in the hospital for surgery on his kneecap, Abigail is not in Jack’s room, because she has put in a call requesting Len Fenerman meet her at the hospital. The nurses can tell by the way she takes his hand and whispers his name that he means something to her. They walk to a door which leads onto a balcony near Jack’s room and there, they smoke cigarettes and look at each other with a growing intensity. He tells her, when she asks, that his wife had committed suicide. Her mother’s reaction at this news reminds Susie of the mother she had only seen once before - in the photograph. He says her death occupies his thoughts during those times that he isn’t think about Susie’s murder. Abigail is grateful that he says the word murder, because she’s ready to have it said aloud. They begin to kiss and caress each other. (Chapter 15) Abigail calls Len Fenerman to meet her at the mall. He goes immediately, because try as he might, he just can’t say no to her. They meet at the mall where she leaves Buckley in the children’s play area. Len sees her in a trashy store called Spencer’s where he gently touches her back and then turns and begins to walk away. She follows him into the inner workings of the mall. The sounds in there are reminiscent of a large heart and Abigail imagines herself inside her own. That reminds her of a doctor’s visit where Jack had been sitting on the examination table and the doctor had been warning them of congestive heart failure. The memory very nearly causes her to let go in grief when suddenly the hallway through which she is walking dead-ends in a huge room where Len is waiting for her. He looks for the need in her “ocean eyes,” the same eyes that attracted Jack and in which he “could now drown.” If he had not reached out and touched her hand again, Susie thinks, “I might have kept her to myself. Susie is dazed as she watches them embrace, because at the exact moment her mother is cheating on her father, Mr. Harvey, her murderer, is easily escorting the police from his home. However, she also knows that the kisses and the caresses she watches ‘call her mother away from her and from her family and from her grief.’” They were ruinous and marvelous at the same time.

__Life of Susie's love interest after her death:__ (Chapter 9) Ray Singh stays away from the memorial, saying goodbye to Susie in his own way by looking at the picture she had given him that fall. He comes to the conclusion that the picture is not Susie. Instead, she is in the air around him, in the mornings he spends with Ruth or in the quiet times he spends alone between studying. He doesn’t want to throw away her picture, but he doesn’t want to look at it again either. He wants to set her free. He puts the picture in a book of Indian poetry, which he and his mother used to press flowers. (Chapter 13) He wishes he could have that moment on the scaffold to do over again. He thinks if he had only kissed Susie, things might have turned out differently.

__Jack's pursuit of murderer:__ (Chapter 4)Two days before Christmas, Susie sees Mr. Harvey reading a book about tribes who used cloth and ropes to build shelters called bridal shelters. He wants to experiment again like he did with the hiding place where he killed Susie. He decides to gather the simple materials and raise it in his backyard. Susie’s father finds him there just after he sees Susie in the shards of glass. He asks Mr. Harvey what he’s building and even helps him erect it. Mr. Harvey leaves for a few moments, going upstairs to check on the knife he had used to kill Susie. He looks it over and then comes back downstairs to talk to Mr. Salmon. Susie’s father says to her just before Mr. Harvey returns, “I can hear you, honey. What is it?” When Mr. Harvey hands her father some of the tarps he is using for his new shelter, his hand sends an electric shock through her father and he says, “You know something.” Mr. Harvey just replies, “Go home. I can’t help you.” (Chapter 5)Susie’s father then turns to Detective Fenerman to tell him about his suspicions that Mr. Harvey is the murderer. Detective Fenerman has already accepted that Susie is dead and her father has little or no acceptable evidence that Mr. Harvey is their man. He tells him that he will take the time to check it out. Detective Len Fenerman’s trips door-to-door in Susie’s neighborhood prompt nothing unusual about Mr. Harvey: his wife had died before they could move in together and he built dollhouses for specialty stores. He talks to Mr. Harvey himself who readily admits he spoke to Mr. Salmon and that they had built the “bridal tent” together, a task he claims to do every year in memory of his wife, Leah. When Mr. Harvey asks how the investigation is coming, all the detective can say is that clues find their way in good time, if they want to be found. Mr. Harvey mentions that the Ellis boy had hurt some animals in the neighborhood and maybe he should be checked out. However, the boy has an alibi with witnesses. When Detective Fenerman reports all this to Susie’s father, Mr. Salmon remembers that Mr. Harvey told Susie’s mother that his wife’s name was Sophie. Detective Fenerman doesn’t find that convincing, so Susie’s father writes the names in the notebook he’s keeping. (Chapter 11)Everything is falling apart for Jack Salmon. The police won’t take his calls, they don’t believe Harvey is the murderer, and his wife agrees with them, not him. He is also having trouble doing his job and fears he’ll soon be unable to support his two remaining children. His only comfort is in his low green easy chair. “The room is like a vault,” says Susie, “the chair like a womb, and me standing guard over him.” He decides to take a late night walk when he sees what looks like a penlight in the cornfield. He first turns out the porch light which the family could not bring themselves to turn off even though they knew Susie was dead; then, he grabs a baseball bat with the words //find a quiet way// in his head. He heads for the cornfield where he last sees the light and finds Clarissa, Susie’s best friend. She has been waiting for Brian Nelson. He doesn’t recognize her, thinks she’s Harvey, knocks her over, and calls out Susie’s name. This attracts Brian, who has been planning to meet Clarissa there, and he begins to attack Jack with a survival kit flashlight.

__Ruth's obsession with the dead/Ruth's relationship with Susie:__ (Chapter 3) When Susie dies, she touches a girl named Ruth Connors, who went to her school, but whom she didn’t know very well. She says she couldn’t help herself touch the girl, because she died so violently and wasn’t able to calculate her steps. The next day, Ruth tells her mother that she had a dream that she saw a pale running ghost coming toward when she was crossing through the faculty parking lot. Her mother’s rejection of such an experience being real makes Ruth keep it to herself and begin writing dark poetry and looking up everything she can find out about Susie. (Chapter 18) She is also somewhat of a celebrity in heaven, because Susie tells all the dead around her how Ruth observes moments of silence and writes prayers in her journal for the women and girls who had died violently. Ruth even has visions of the moments of these deaths and she gives her prayers to them. When she sees a little girl in the park crawling away from her nanny, the nanny awakens when the cord attached to the little girl pulls on her arm. In this way, she calls her back from danger. It occurs to Ruth that all the women and girls who live to old age are now the cords that were never there for the ones who died. And, at that moment, she sees the ghost of a little girl who had wandered away many years before and had not had a cord to pull her back. She became “a little girl gone.” (Chapter 22) Susie sees Ruth collapsing on the road, but she misses Mr. Harvey driving away, “unwatched, unloved, unbidden.” She feels herself falling out of the gazebo and out past the farthest boundary of heaven. She hears Ray screaming Ruth’s name and in the next instance, she is in Ruth’s eyes looking up. She feels every sensation, but she cannot see Ruth. Susie feels herself fighting with Ruth who wants out of her body and at the last minute, Susie give in and Ruth, breaks all the rules, not dying, but going to heaven anyway. She also sees Franny calling for Susie and Holiday barking and then they are gone and something is holding her hand. She knows that she will not be granted this grace on Earth forever. Ruth’s wish will only last for a short time. (Ruth wishes for Susie to inhabit her body for a short time. Ruth wants that connection with Susie).

Analytic Grading Sheet Journal/Diary Graphic Organizer How to Write a Diary Entry Handout (For Teacher, Substitute, and Student Reference) Circle a Sage Explanation Handout (For Teacher and Substitute Reference) Character, Point of View, Conflict Handout (For Teacher and Substitute Reference) Important Events/People in //The Lovely Bones// Handout (For Teacher and Substitute Reference) Student Sample
 * __Handouts__**