Month: April 2018

Some important skills a high school language arts students should learn how to do is how to analyze text, make a claim, and provide evidence to support the argument. After a student has mastered these skills, they can effectively persuade readers and make the writing more powerful.

After HLA 4 students read chapters 22 through 26 of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, one student went above and beyond to showcase their claim and evidence ability. The student made a claim that Atticus Finch has a personality type of ISFJ, the defender, along with other fictional characters such as  Melanie Hamilton Wilkes (Gone With the Wind), Ophelia (Hamlet), Dr. Watson (Sherlock Holmes), Arthur Dent (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), Narcissa Malfoy (Harry Potter), Steve Rogers (Captain America), Balin (The Hobbit), and Samwise Gamgee (Lord of the Rings).

Please enjoy the following student’s reflection. 

Atticus would fit the personality on an ISFJ, or “The Defender”. He fits many strengths and some of the weakness of this type. To begin, he is patient. In the end of chapter 22, he is spit on by Bob Ewell. Following this in chapter 23, Mrs. Stephanie Crawford explains how Atticus reacted, by “took out his handkerchief and wiped his face”. The event shows Atticus’s patience towards Bob Ewell because Bob Ewell tried to humiliate Atticus and he remained unruffled and did not strike back in revenge.

In addition, he also showed his patience in the courtroom with Mayella. She began to cry and get emotional while Atticus was calling her “Miss Mayella”. In this situation, he exhibited his patience by allowing her to finish before starting the next question and did not get angry after she became upset multiple times.

Another strength of the ISFJ personality type Atticus possesses is supportiveness. The 16 personalities website says that being supportive means that they “share knowledge, time, and energy with anyone who needs it, and all the more so with friends and family”. Atticus fulfills this characteristic by sharing with Scout many pieces of advice which she takes into account later in the book, such as courage and to step in other people’s shoes. Scout implements the second piece of advice in chapter 26 when she thinks of how Boo Radley must see the kids tormenting him while trying to contact him.

These pieces of advice help for Atticus this personality in through a strength of good practical skills. This trait entails using their altruism to help care for others. In the book, he cares for multiple people. First he assists Mrs. Dubose by having his kids go over and read to her even though she did not as him to. As is says on page 128, “ I told you that if you hadn’t lost your head I’d have made you go read to her.” By doing this, she would have been able to take her mind off her morphine addiction for a bit and it would be easier to endure. This example shows how Atticus cared for for Mrs. Dubose. He also provided aid for Tom Robinson by showing courage and taking the case. His definition of courage was “It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyways and you see through it no matter what.” (page 128). Atticus displayed this courage by defending Tom Robinson in the trial even though it was a large possibility he would lose because of the racial divisions of the time. He uses this courage to aid Tom Robinson and try to get the jury to declare him not guilty.

Despite showing the strengths of this personality , Atticus also shows some of the weaknesses. One of these weaknesses is repressing their feelings. In part 1, the kids are often harassed because their father is a “n*gger lover” because he is defending Tom Robinson. Scout and Jem tell Atticus about it and he tells them to ignore them. However, this constant heckling begins to worry him. He is worried about the safety of his kids, and worries about the actual size of the impact this case is having on him.  

All in all, Atticus is a great model of the ISFJ personality for many reasons. He possesses many strengths of the personality such as patience, supportiveness, and strong practical skills. He also possesses a weakness of ISFJ, hiding his feelings. A combination of these traits allows Atticus to be be a great defender for both his kids and Tom Robinson in the book.

Thank you S. Dickhudt (HLA4 – 2nd hour) for sharing your reflection with us. 

Being a teacher, we are charged with helping students develop and strengthen their content knowledge, as well as providing them with new opportunities to learn and grow.  In the midst of “working on skills,”  one hopes that the curriculum is both engaging and rigorous – a combination which sets students up for success, both inside and outside the classroom.  Luckily, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a staple in high school curricula across the country, provides such opportunities.

Students at DHS examined the novel, keeping in mind the essential question, “How do we navigate through social injustice?” Upon concluding their reading of To Kill a Mockingbird, students spent time reflecting on the novel’s themes, implications, and powerful messages.

Here is one student’s reflection:

Just as Dr. Seuss once said, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” I cannot believe the book’s over.

It was really a life-changing book in just about every single aspect possible. I learned so much about history, and within the time that I completed the first protocol to now, I witnessed a lot of internal growth. The ending was more than everything I could’ve imagined. Somehow I thought I’d feel unhappy, yet after page 374… I felt content. I would no doubt follow up again, and I’ve already gotten my mother interested. (She’s picking up a copy of her own). Whenever my younger sister saw the book lying in my room, she’d quickly pick it up and say she’d heard so much about the adventures of Atticus Finch; and every time she’d curiously flip through the pages, I’d jump, hoping I could pry the book from her hands before she saw anything alarming. But, I would want her to read, as well as understand the crucial themes from the book at such a young age. Understanding these concepts would help her blossom into a more open-minded person. I just don’t know how to go about regarding the censoring. I think that’s a part of To Kill a Mockingbird though, as ironic as it sounds. The community was so caught up in painting this artificial picture for their children that they forgot how to nurture them with the most important tool of all. Education. That’s it. Atticus, a man who was patient and educated, bred a future for his own kids filled with the same fate as his own by valuing both the truth, and education. He gifted them with the best gift of all. They gained the upper-hand on any child in their area.

All the characters developed realistically, and just the way I’d initially envisioned them to. Through all the surprises, and moments that caught me completely off-guard, I wouldn’t change a single thing. I truly hope that this book will never be banned simply because of a few choice words. Every 10th grader needs to understand the magnitude of Harper Lee’s various messages. I think that they really do hold the ability to shape the world today, as well as the future. There is no better way to convey a message than through a book, and this piece of literature truly proved that to me, time and time again. I cannot wait to open To Kill a Mockingbird back up again in five years and know that, this time around, we were the generation that tackled the themes presented to us.

Thank you L. Alsalman (HLA4 – 3rd hour) for sharing your reflection with us.