Creative Lesson: Character Analysis using The Good Earth

Class: Secondary 3 Express (Elective Literature, Set-text)

To analyse the character of O-lan, one of the main characters in the novel, I got my students to first identify her character traits from a list that I had provided. The list also contains some traits that are not applicable to the character. This is to test on their understanding. After a short discussion, the class came up with their own list of character traits for O-lan, using the one that I had as a guide.

Then I divided the class into 4 groups and got each group to choose 2 traits from the list. Based on the traits they have chosen, they were to imagine that they are a group of matchmakers in ancient China and they have to come up with an advertisement, to promote O-lan as the potential wife. They are to use the PEEL structure as a guide on what to include in their presentation. The advertisement cannot be in the form of a poster or a brochure. Basically the students have to act out their advertisement. In order to provide evidence to support their promotion, they have to act out the scenes from the novel that displays the trait of O-lan they are promoting. During each group’s  presentation, the other groups who were not presenting will play the role of the ‘single men’ who are looking for a wife and will decide whether they would want O-lan as their wife based on the presenting group’s advertisement. After all of the presentations, there was a need to consolidate all of the points for the students to take away from.