When Mr. Vinny and three others new teachers dropped down into Mr. Ravine’s classroom, they entered a jungle thick with tangled ungraded papers and rumors of what might have happened to the dead teacher’s body. The paper trail was slick and, in places where it had fallen away, flat-out dangerous. In the midst of the paper pile, Mr. Vinny found what he had been looking for: A Character Analysis Lesson Plan for “The Ravine” by Graham Salisbury.
I now share it with you.
And “The Ravine” Character Analysis lesson plan handout that goes with it.
Don’t fall into the ravine of bad lesson plans…
Don’t throw your career into the ravine just because you don’t have your lesson plans ready right now. These “Ravine” lesson plans are ready to use this instant.
We’ve all been there before: It’s 5 minutes before class and we have this short story (we may or may not have read) and all we can come up with is “read this and answer the questions at the end of the story.”
We guiltily give the assignment, students work on it for about 8 minutes, and you spend the remainder of class telling them to be quiet and making idle threats.
This is not that kind of lesson. And if you haven’t grabbed the handout yet, do it now.
I can cite textual evidence to analyze characterization.
That’s the purpose of the lesson, although you may find other learning targets that would work for your class. This is the first literature standard you’ll find in grades 6-12 in just about every state’s set of standards–the part about citing textual evidence.
The character analysis may not be found in all grades and in all states, but it’s the same process and the learning target I focus on at ELALessonPlans.com.
The citing textual evidence of “The Ravine Lesson Plan” consists of finding specific narrator descriptions, characters’ actions, and characters’ words.
The character analysis includes identifying character motivation and tracing character development.
As with all analysis reading assignments, this can easily be adapted to include an analysis writing assignment.
“The Ravine” Summary
Vinny, against the wishes of his mother, ventures into the ravine with his three friends a short time after a boy had drowned there. I say friends, but these guys aren’t very friend-like in how they treat Vinny.
The four are frolicking in the water, jumping from the lower cliff into the water below, the same water where it’s presumed the boy drowned just 15 days before—the other theory involves the boy being taken away by some goddess.
Vinny is disturbed by the apparent drowning, yet his friends don’t seem to care. They all jump to the higher cliff and jump from it. This scares Vinny, who worries about them sharing the fate of the dead boy from 15 days ago.
The three “friends” apply serious peer pressure to get Vinny to climb to the high cliff and jump. Vinny doesn’t want to jump. But as any good group of teenage friends will do, they peer pressure him even more. And as any good teenager will do, he succumbs to the peer pressure—almost.
Vinny climbs to the top, waits, and…comes back down. His friends are displeased but Vinny finds peace and joy in his decision. He realizes the hard thing wasn’t the jump. It was not jumping.
“The Ravine” Analysis
- Irony. His friends consider Vinny a coward. In reality, not doing something others want him to do makes him courageous. At least that’s how Vinny sees it.
- Character Analysis. What do we make of Vinny? His friends? How does Vinny change? How do his friends change? Or not change?
- The story follows a basic plot line that students should be able to analyze.
- Making Inferences. There are things that aren’t stated directly. The reader must infer meaning from the details.
- Narrative Writing. I wonder what the others are truly thinking. Do they really think Vinny’s a coward, or does he make them feel bad because he does the right thing and they don’t?
- Conflict. It’s Vinny vs. his friends, nature, himself, and society.
- Making Connections. This is a story any middle schooler or high schooler should be able to connect to. I think it’s also a story adults can relate to as well.
Building Character
If you’re looking for other short stories for teaching characterization, you’re in luck! Check these out.
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