Describing a Character in Depth

1. Draw the four quadrants on the board and label them: "Says," "Does," "Thinks," "Others say."
2. Ask: "How do you find out what someone new in class is like?" Collect answers and sort them into the quadrants — what they tell you, what you see them do, what they tell you they are thinking, what other people say about them.
3. Ask which source is most reliable. Fish for "does": people can say anything, and others may have their own reasons, but actions are hard to fake.

1. Read "The Blue Pencil": "'Nadia never shares anything,' Ben told the new boy. 'Don't even ask.' Across the room, Nadia counted her colored pencils — twenty-four, every one sharpened to the same length. When Rosa's only blue pencil snapped, Nadia looked at her own blue for a long moment. I need it for the sky, she thought. Then she rolled it across the table to Rosa without a word. 'Just give it back sharp,' she muttered."
2. Fill the quadrants together. Says: "Just give it back sharp." Does: counted pencils all "sharpened to the same length"; "rolled it across the table to Rosa." Thinks: "I need it for the sky." Others say: "Nadia never shares anything."
3. Show a thin description built only from the Says quadrant: "Nadia is grumpy because she muttered 'Just give it back sharp.'" Ask what this misses. It is not wrong; it is shallow, because it rests on one kind of evidence.
4. Show a deep one drawing on all four: "Nadia is careful with her things — every pencil is sharpened to the same length — and she has a reputation for not sharing. But she gives Rosa the blue pencil even though she thinks 'I need it for the sky.' She is more generous than she lets people see, and the mutter hides it."
5. Point at the contradiction: Others say "never shares"; Does "rolled it across the table." Ask: "Who do we believe, Ben or Nadia's hands?" The disagreement is not a problem in the text — it is the most interesting fact about her.
6. Write the rule on the board: "Depth is not more quotations. Depth is more kinds."

“You have four quotes and they are all things she said. Where is what she does? Where is what she thinks? Where is what other people say — and are they right?”

1. Give pairs a second passage: "Mr. Alvarez, the caretaker, was famous for shouting at anyone who walked on his wet floors. 'He hates kids,' said Kayla. That afternoon a first-grader slipped in the hallway and burst into tears. Mr. Alvarez dropped his mop, knelt down and checked her knee. 'Floors don't matter,' he said quietly. Inside, he was already thinking about the sign he should have put out."
2. Pairs fill all four quadrants with quotations, one sticky-note color per quadrant.
3. They find the contradiction (Kayla's "He hates kids" against "knelt down and checked her knee") and write one sentence on what it reveals.
4. They write a three-sentence description using at least three quadrants and ending with what the details show together, e.g. "He seems strict, but he cares more about children than about his floors."

“Check your sticky notes. If they are all one color, your description is thin.”

1. Students complete the character page. The passage is printed on the sheet.
2. They label each detail they use with its quadrant before writing their final "what this shows" sentence.

1. Ask for one detail from Does and one from Others say about Mr. Alvarez, and one sentence on what the two together show.