Character Sketch/Analysis in its very essence strives to enable the reader to be able to collect information/evidence about a given character, make inferences and then draw conclusions. It is a fairly scientific approach if you choose to see it that way. Generally it is given as individual writing assignments. But this approach narrows its purview to the individual's beliefs, perspectives and biases.
At the Young Writers' Club, we took up a short story written by Joanna Gatti, that was shorlisted for a Reedsy contest. Read the story here.
The short story titled Lost and Found is about a group of teens who decide to go on an adventure trip to celebrate the protagonist, Sam's birthday. They end up getting lost in a cave, not sure of finding their way out.
We chose the protagonist, Sam for our character analysis and tried to determine if she is a leader. When we began the discussion, most of the group that she is a leader who kept her calm under pressure and helped her friends. One teen chose to the less trodden path and contended that Sam is not a leader. He argued that a leader must be able to make plans to ensure that the rest of the group is not put into danger as far as possible. Sam on the other hand acted on impulse and did no homework to find out more about the cave in question.
Every teen stated their point of view with evidence from the text. As the discussion went along, it became more debatable if Sam was a natural leader or not. We put up all the information, the perspectives and then finally took a vote. Some made a complete switch after being convinced with the evidence shown, while the others moved from a certain position to a little more malleable position. Possibly a couple of more convincing arguments might just have drawn them on the other side.
In this process, we explored what traits define a leader. While one perspective indicated that making plans and preparing for contingencies is a leadership trait, the other suggested that being able to pull up one's comrades in a panic situation is a sign of leadership. Is the person is able to make an exit plan a leader who probably couldn't have, if the protagonist hadn't helped in soothing their nerves in the first place? That turned to be the key question that led to debate about this character's leadership traits. There is no exactly right or wrong answer. Which made it even more imperative to look for evidence in the text.
Collect information, make inferences, check to see if enough evidence is available before reaching a meaningful conclusion. Process repeat, and voila, critical thinking becomes second nature! But to be able to revisit one's conclusion, one needs someone to challenge it. Without that, there would be less motivation to revisit one's conclusion. This is where group discussions play a pertinent role in enhancing critical thinking abilities in students.
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Both weekday and weekend batches are available at the Young Readers' Club for the 8-12 age group.
Writing programs for the 9-12 age group- Young Writers' Club Jr.
The Young Writers' Club program for the 13-16 age group offers a weekly platform to read and discuss curated articles from the news, observe writing approaches and practise one's writing skills.
NEW! Tween Tribune is an online magazine for the Young Writers' Club (Jr.) program for tweens. Weekly updates of our discussions are published. Once in 6 months, the best of writing by the tween members is made available to read.
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