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Read Keeping the Night Watch: Part 2, “Spring;” Complete Student Packet Worksheets for Keeping the Night Watch: Part 2, “Spring”

Distribute the Experience Cards to four students in your class. Each student will receive one of four cards with a position. Give the students a minute to read their experience card and get into character. Next, read aloud the following situation: The school wants to ban junk food to help students develop healthier eating habits. Have each student take a turn to present his or her position in a debate forum, using their experience card as a basis for their presentation.

will remind students that perspective is how someone thinks and feels about an event or person in the world. One influence on our perspective is the prior experiences that we have had (other influences include culture, age, gender, parents’ political beliefs, etc.). For example, if I have fond memories of eating sour candy with my best friend on the first day of school every year since Kindergarten, I might oppose a ban on junk food in schools, because I value that tradition. However, if I experienced getting cavities drilled due to eating a large amount of candy in school, I might support a junk food ban in school. Similarly, in a novel (whether poetry or prose), a character’s perspective is affected by past experience. Good readers examine how specific experiences impact a character’s perspective on problems or events in the story to understand a character more fully.

I will examine a character’s perspective by first identifying a character’s thoughts and feelings about an event or problem in the text. Then, I will think about whether a past experience may have influenced that thinking, and I will record any details I can find about that memory or past event. Finally, I will use details about the past to explain why the character thinks and feels the way they do about an event or problem in the text.

I will model using an early example in Keeping the Night Watch. I will examine Zuri’s perspective on adopting a dog. I will draw an eye on chart paper and label it “Zuri’s Perspective,” because perspective is how a character “sees” a situation. Note: See Zuri’s Perspective on Adopting a Dog Chart for specific examples. 

First, I will record her thoughts and feelings about adopting the dog (even if it is a game of pretend). Since the story is told from the point of view of C.J. and not Zuri, we can find Zuri’s thoughts and feelings through things that she says or through actions that express her thoughts and feelings. Zuri is eager to adopt her dog, but “she’s afraid. She’s eight and she knows that things can go wrong.” She worries about her dog running away, even if she takes good care of it. She names the dog Stay to reflect that feeling. Next, I will identify an event in her past that might impact her perspective. I know that her father left the family when she was very young and it impacted her (she draws houses without doors at school and sleeps on the welcome mat to make sure he does not leave again). Finally, I will draw a conclusion about the impact of her experience being left by her dad on her perspective. I can conclude that her father leaving made her fearful of being left alone. It made her feel afraid and uncertain about others staying with her.

Ask: "How can I explain how a character’s perspective is influenced by a prior experience?" Students should answer that you should look at a character’s perspective of an event or problem in the book, and then record the character’s actions, thoughts, and feelings. Then, identify a past experience that has a connection to the present event. Finally, you will use the evidence you have gathered to explain how the past impacts the present.

will examine Preacher’s perspective about going to college. Note: See Preacher’s Perspective on College Chart for specific examples. First, we will draw an eye on chart paper or the board. We will identify and record Preacher’s thoughts and feelings about college. We will write that he calls it “the promised land,” which means he feels like it is a gift from God. He wants to go to college. Next, we will think about which memory or experience of Preacher impacts his perspective. One memory that impacts him is being blocked by cops when he never committed a crime. When the cops told him, “Don’t get smart, boy,” he pretended to be nobody. Finally, we will explain how this experience impacts his perspective. The cops told him not to get smart and expected him to act like a nobody. As a result, he wanted to go to college and become somebody. He rebelled against the experience and thought of himself as a smart, college-bound student.

will examine C.J.’s perspective on having his dad return to the house by completing the C.J.’s Perspective Worksheet in your Student Packet. (See Student Packet, pages 16-17.) On the worksheet you will identify his feelings about his father’s return by recording his actions and words that express those thoughts and feelings. Then, you will explain how a past experience influences his perspective.

will come together to share C.J.’s thoughts and feelings about his father coming home. We will discuss how and why his perspective changed at the end of the story.