I love a good one-pager for so many reasons! And I love coming up with twists to take them to the next level. Lately I’ve been experimenting with a concept for using them to go deep with characterization. I first experimented with the “open mind” idea a decade or so ago, asking students to fill in the thoughts, motivations, and relationships of a character in an empty circle I superimposed over a random photo that sort of looked like the character. It worked as a start for getting students thinking about character.
But lately I’ve been pushing the idea much further. How can we guide students to represent the real nuances of character? And use imagery, color, spacing, and style to help them represent those nuances?
It all starts with asking students to think about a character from the text you’re reading. You can ask them to fill that character’s “Open Mind” with anything you want. Maybe you want to see it filled with relationships and motivations. Or history and dreams. Symbols and themes. Key quotations. All of the above.
Next comes inviting them to represent what’s happening in their character’s mind with intentional choices about color and representation. Ask them to think about what to put where and WHY, which colors and images to use and WHY.
Then comes the question of what’s happening around the character. In the space outside their head, what is influencing them? You can divide up the rest of the page and invite students to fill it with representations of key events, relationships, settings, etc. Whatever you feel is most important in helping showcase the depth of the characters in your text.
The Open Mind Project for The Great Gatsby
For this project for The Great Gatsby, I wanted to give students a lot of choices. So I created templates for six key characters from the novel.
Once students choose their character, it’s time for them to take a look at the models and directions and start illuminating their character. After workshop time in class and homework time out of class, they’ll be ready to gallery walk their open mind projects and turn them in.
I always like to give students a specific task during a gallery walk to keep them focused, so I’d suggest giving them award nominations to fill out for the different types of open minds you want to highlight. I’d suggest categories like “Best Analysis,” “Best Visual Design,” and “Best Representation of Character.”
The Open Mind Project for The Hate U Give
Now that you’ve seen the steps of the project, I just want to show you a few more examples, like this one for The Hate U Give. I chose to do my model on Starr, though students can also choose from other key characters like Khalil and Maverick. I used Canva for my model (by the way, if you’re new to Canva, you might like to take my free mini-course, Canva Confidence).
The Open Mind Project for Long Way Down
Long Way Down was the book that really got me thinking about how to design a 2.0 version of The Open Mind, specific to various novels. This version for Long Way Down asks students create a section around Will’s mind for the influence of each of the ghosts as he rides the elevator down. Students will have to practice their close reading skills to really understand what each ghost offers to Will, and how they help him break down his concept of the rules.
The Open Mind Project for Born a Crime
There’s so much to explore in Trevor Noah’s incredible memoir, Born a Crime. In creating my model for this book project, I especially wanted to highlight his understanding of language to break down barriers – focusing on his role as a chameleon who can switch in and out of languages and cultures, and his incredible relationship with his mother.
Ready to Try It?
Whether you create your own Open Mind activity or try one of mine, I hope you’re excited to give this creative one-pager twist a spin! It’s a great way to get kids diving deep into character, and going carefully through the text to decide what to highlight and where. If you want, you can add a one-page analysis paper to complement the project, inviting students to explain their choices. Or you can ask them to give a one-minute presentation of their open mind to the class, again, to explain and defend their choices.
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