Drama In the Classroom: Character Development With Onions!

Hello Readers,
For English and Drama classrooms a dramatic presentation of what character development looks like can be shown in many forms.  I am going to use an onion to model this concept for you, so you can model it for your students.

What?

Yes, I said it.  An onion!  This may seem like an odd example, but just follow me on this one.  Okay, an onion has something that makes it a great example of an analogy for character development.  Care to guess what it is?  LAYERS.

  Let Me Explain

These layers are similar to the layers of a character.  There is the character's outward appearance, which is the flaky outward shell of the onion.  And the inner layers include the character's given circumstances (background), their socioeconomic status, family relationships, their personality, and the core, which is their motivation.

You can explain each layer of the characters as you physically demonstrate each one by peeling layer of the onion off.  Using a knife to cut the onion in half is advisable and it is the easiest way to get to the core.

Follow It Up With An Assignment

This is an exciting way to convey the key concepts that make a character.  Assigning them a worksheet with an onion layer and a character they choose from a play is a great supplementary paper that can reinforce the lesson on character development!

Have fun with this one.
Thanks for reading,
Aliana ~Theater Lover~
Future Teacher