Overview

This next set of activities uses short monologues to develop strategies for detecting unreliable narrators and to generate criteria for their detection. Students also get further practice in writing a short argument around unreliable narration.

Guiding Questions

• To what extent is this character reliable? How do you know?
• What might be the character’s worldview?
• If narrator is reliable, what might that suggest about human nature? If narrator isn’t reliable, what might that suggest about the human nature?

Texts/Materials

• Character monologues
• Public list of cues for unreliability—adding to the list

Activities

1. Ask a student to read the first monologue out loud. Then lead a discussion around the following questions:

• Is this perspective reliable or unreliable? How do you know? If this view were true, what would it suggest about human nature?

Keep a public list of criteria for determining narrator unreliability on a board or wall chart. 

2. Put students in groups of three to read the next six monologues and answer the questions following each monologue. 

3. Lead a whole class discussion of students answers to the questions and continue the public list of criteria for detecting unreliability.

4. Instruct students to pick one monologue where they determined the character was unrelaible and write an argument about why the narrator was unrelaible. Students should tie their claim to one of the criteria generated, use specific evidence from the text, and add a sentence at the end regarding what their argument indicates about human nature. These paragraphs can be revised in pairs. 

Assessment

The following are means of assessing students during activities so instruction can be adjusted and differentiated according to students’ needs.

• Thematic statements
• Thesis and one body paragraph of argument on monologues