Aim: What is Atticus like and how does he influence his children?
Objective: Students will understand Atticus's personality traits and how he influences his children as they mature.
Procedure:
- Ask students: What kind of father is Atticus and how does he expect his children to learn? (Students should understand that Atticus wants his children to learn things for themselves, to see what real courage is and to understand what makes people truly good.)
- Ask students: Why didn't Atticus want his children to know he could shoot a gun so well? Why did he make Jem read to Miss Dubose?
- Students should write down their definition of courage. Ask some students to share.
- Read The Woman in the Mirror.
- Ask students to underline lines that show the speaker's courage.
- Discuss why she is courageous (it is a non-obvious way, similar to Atticus's expectations of his children).
- Have students rewrite their definition of courage. Students should write definitions on the board so everyone can choose one.
- Students should then write a one page paper explaining their definition of courage, referring to the woman in the story and one character from To Kill a Mockingbird.
