Thank You, Ma’am Lesson Plan on Characterization: Activities and Discussion Question Ideas

This lovely, accessible story of a brief meeting between two strangers is a modern classic for a reason.

But teaching students to go beyond just noting how sweet the story is to understanding the deliberate, masterful characterization is the real challenge. 

In my experience, the easier a time students have reading a story, the more likely they are to think that it “just came out that way.”  But when they unpack all of the details of Hughes’ writing, they can learn a lot about how that kind of seemingly effortless writing is constructed.  My complete unit on “Thank You, Ma’am” is designed to help students both enjoy the story—and understand how Hughes’ choices create an understated masterpiece. 

Here are my 7 tips for teaching characterization in “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes. 

Modify slightly depending on how comfortable students are reading and analyzing a story independently.

My goal for teaching anything is to help students go from wherever they are to the next level. In other words, some students might be working on explaining what a character’s actions reveal about them, while others are ready to consider how Hughes’ choices shape the meaning of the story as a whole.

The activities below follow the same sequence, but with different amounts of support depending on how independently students can work. I’ll note those modifications as we go.

Open with a fun characterization activity.

This is a super-fun and low-key way to get students thinking about characterization from the inside out.  You start off by brainstorming as a class feelings, desires, needs, or characteristics of a person—anything from “angry” to “she wants to eat lunch” to “he is mourning the death of his father” will work.

Next, students pick three words or phrases from the board to show with indirect characterization. They can choose to show their chosen direct characterization with dialogue, description, or actions.

Once students have had some time to work on their attempts, you get volunteers to read their writing out loud without saying what they are trying to convey. Have the rest of the class take guesses at which options they have chosen. If you have an especially competitive class, it might be fun to assign points for correct guesses and declare a winner!

I also recommend spending a few minutes discussing the experience, getting students to consider why most writers prefer indirect characterization over direct characterization or some reasons why writers might choose direct characterization.

Read the story together as a class.

I recommend reading the story out loud as students read along.  I know this choice doesn’t work for all teachers, but I would way rather teach a unit on a story that students have actually read!

For students who need less support, have them reread the story and mark it up with the following notation: star or asterisk for something important; check mark for something they like (for whatever reason), and question mark for anything that is confusing for any reason.

Have students spend a few minutes reacting to the story. 

For students who need more scaffolding, I like to give them specific questions to answer in their responses.  Since they’ll be analyzing characterization, I like to get students considering their initial reactions to Roger and Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.  So I give them questions like “Which character do you relate to more? Why?” and “Which character do you like more? Why?” This gets them noticing details about the characters and considering their own reactions to those details before they delve into analysis

If students don’t need the prompts, they can just spend a few minutes writing on their initial reactions.

Get students analyzing characterization with a structured chart.

At this point, students are ready to really dig into analyzing the characterization in the story, and I suggest doing that in one of two ways.  

For students who need more guidance, I like to give them a ready-to-go handout that has the quotes already pulled out so they can get to the analysis faster and with a bit more scaffolding.  The questions they answer on the quotes are not less rigorous, I just save them time in hunting for details so they can really dig in faster.  

So, for example, the second quote they analyze on Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones is this one: “…the large woman simply turned around and kicked him right square in his blue-beaned sitter.”  They’ll note that it is an action.  And when asked to answer what the quote shows about the character, students might write that she doesn’t hesitate; she isn’t afraid to act; she’s no-nonsense and in charge of the situation.  Finally, in thinking about the effect on the reader of that quote, they might notice that their feelings are mixed.  It’s hilarious to think that she is literally kicking him in the butt, but it’s also sad that they are in this situation in the first place.

For classes or students who are ready to work more independently, I give them the same chart with the same questions, but I have them find their own quotes from the story to analyze.  For this step, they’ll look back at what they marked up in the story and take characterization from those passages.  

For both formats, I have students look at each character independently.  I find that taking the time to work step by step in an analysis of the characterization helps students move beyond just identifying it to thinking more about how it functions in the story as a whole.

Come together as a class to discuss how Hughes’ characterization relates to theme.

The questions that I expect students to discuss at the end of the characterization activity are actually quite rigorous, but since they have done the work to analyze the specific elements of the story, they are prepared.  

First, they discuss the main forms of characterization in the story. Then, they consider how Roger has changed. Finally, they discuss how Hughes’ choices for characterization relate to the themes of the story as a whole.  

What I find so interesting and subtle about this story is that Hughes mostly focuses on the characters’ dialogue and actions.  And this is where students are able to see how the story is constructed—the literary elements are not just something for them to point out and identify, but a way for Hughes to further the story’s themes about how what we do for others matters.  It’s about how we can help each other without ever truly understanding what someone else is going through.

Give a low-key writing assignment to bring it all together.

Finally, I have students write one of two short, informal writing assignments on the story. 

The quicker option is to have students write a short reaction on three quotes of their choosing and what they learn about the character from those quotes—this gives them some nice practice integrating quotes into their writing and doesn’t take much time. 

A more in-depth though still low-key option is to have students first write a body paragraph using a structured format and following a handout.  Then, they write a short informal paper that explains one character, how that characterization is developed in the story, and how that characterization relates to the bigger themes of the story as a whole.  Since they’re building from work already done in class, this is a fairly quick writing assignment that is more about practice than perfection. 

Ultimately, I want students to understand how Hughes creates a short masterpiece of a story, but I also want them to experience it—and enjoy it!

Want to teach a complete lesson plan on “Thank You, Ma’am” that includes all of these elements plus complete answer keys? Check out my complete unit here.