Language
discovering the power to influence tone, mood, style, voice, and meaning
Standard:
Language 11-12: 3, 5 Reading/ Literature 11-12: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10
Writing 11-12: 2, 4, 9,10 Speaking and Listening 11-12: 1, 2, 3
To be college and career ready in language, students must have firm control over the conventions of standard English. At the same time, they must
come to appreciate that language is as at least as much a matter of craft as of rules and be able to choose words, syntax, and punctuation to express
themselves and achieve particular functions and rhetorical effects. (CCSS, 51)
Grade Level:
Featured Skill:
11
Students will understand how authors make choices in language
(including changes in pronouns) to reveal characterization.
(Suggested for
grade 11)
Lesson Summary:
In this lesson, students will read, reread and analyze the language use in “Superman and Me”
by Sherman Alexie to determine how the author develops characterization through his choice
of pronouns. This lesson will then be connected to English III through the essential
questions.
Theme and/or
Essential Question
Featured Text
Primary Text:
 “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie

May be found online at
http://whisperdownthewritealley.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/shermanalexies-the-joys-of-reading-writing-superman-me/
Secondary Text (choice of the following):
 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
 The Odyssey by Homer



How does an author
create
characterization
through language
choices?
How can identity be
expressed through
direct and indirect
characterization?
How is identity
created?
How do communities
and their expectations
shape identity?
Language  Page 1
Instruction
Process
Activity
Instructional Steps
1. Background: Students should, in grades 6-8, learn about
characterization how it is developed both directly and indirectly.
Students should also have learned about pronouns and their
function. Students may not have explored using pronouns in terms
of purposeful inclusion in order to impact meaning. Students may
Modeling and
not have an understanding of the choices they have in language and
explaining
how those choices ultimately create emphasis on a particular
the featured
element.
grammar
2. In this particular lesson, the teacher will not model the featured
skill
skill. Students will engage in a close reading of “Superman and Me”
by Sherman Alexie in order to determine the usage and impact of
the grammatical conventions. This lesson guides students to
discover the impact of usage in a piece of writing. For students to
become well acquainted with the text, multiple opportunities to read
the selection will be necessary.
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Reading 1: Student reading
3. We encourage the reading of the entire selection before the close
study in order to provide a context for the particular excerpt in this
lesson. Independently, students will read and annotate the
selection, “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie. While they read,
students should underline any details that develop the character of
the narrator or his father. Have students annotate in the margins
things they notice about the characters.
Reading 2: Teacher or fluent reader reading
Practice
in Context
4. Teachers may want to read the excerpted section aloud while being
careful not to overly influence meaning with inflection. Students
need to hear all the words pronounced correctly; delivery includes
deliberate choices that could begin to rob students of the
opportunity to make meaning based on the word choice, word order,
and punctuation. Students will want to translate the text. As
students gain understanding, they will want to make adjustments
to the translation.
Reading text
and
identifying
deliberate
use of the
featured
grammar
skill
Reading 3: Highlighting for further understanding
5. Teachers should now give students four different colored
highlighters. Have students, in small groups, reread the selection
and highlight their underlined passages: one color for direct
characterization of the narrator, one for indirect characterization of
the narrator, one for direct characterization of the father and a
fourth color for indirect characterization of the father.
6. Students should use their highlighted passages to complete the
student handout on characterization below.
Answering questions to engage in the text
7. Students will use the questions provided to analyze the text for
Alexie’s choices in language and for answers to the essential
questions.
8. Students will continue to annotate the selections and answer
questions. (See handout) The questions are intended to promote
understanding/comprehension; however, these are not questions
that are all necessarily ‘right there’ types of questions. The
questions all require students to return to the text and potentially
locate additional information to increase understanding.
Analyzing and Evaluating : Rereading to discover
9. Students will use the provided chart to look for examples in the text
and analyze the characterization in “Superman and Me.”
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Application
in Writing
Writing text
and applying
the featured
grammar
skill in a
deliberate
way
Additional
Resources
Writing: Use the featured skill(s)
10. Students will choose one of the writing options available. (See
options on student activity sheet)
11. Students will be asked to interpret, analyze and evaluate the
author’s choice in language in their writing assignment.
For extension: (Students could be provided options for
extension activities)
Extensions
1. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag goes on a journey from selfrecognition to a realization of how to rescue his society.
Compare what Alexie is trying to do with his culture and
society with what Montag is trying to accomplish with his
culture in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Students should
express the connections in a journal, a five-paragraph essay
or as a fictional narrative from Montag’s perspective.
2. After reading Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry,
examine how the identity of Walter Lee Younger is formed.
What struggles does he face when his personal identity meets
and conflicts with the restrictions placed on members of his
society? How does this compare to Alexie’s experience? How
does this compare with the students Alexie meets when he
returns to the classroom?
For Intervention and support:

Intervention
and support

Teachers should review the questions for the excerpt carefully. The
questions are intended to help the students attend to the reading for
comprehension. The use of the questions should be determined by the
students in the room. If students are able to read and comprehend without
questions that direct them line by line, then these supports can be taken
away. Always remember that the purpose of the questions is to promote
close reading of the selection; the removal of the direct questions should not
remove the opportunity to read carefully and closely. The questions should
only be reduced or removed once students are equipped with the annotating
and close reading skills necessary to question the text naturally. (See the
attached handout).
To support students, students should be encouraged to work
collaboratively. The first reading should be done by students
independently—we want students to have the opportunity to try to find
some elements first. Reading aloud is an opportunity for a second reading
and to hear all the words pronounced correctly. As students become more
intimate with the selection, working collaboratively allows them to build on
the ideas of others and negotiate the meaning of particular elements.
Language  Page 4


Teacher
Notes

Answer keys are not provided. The lessons are intended to create
opportunities for students to rely on the text to gain independence in
reading complex texts. In this instructional model, the only wrong answers
are those that are not well supported or engage in fallacious reasoning.
It is best for teachers to engage in conversations and make instructional
decisions with a PLT about this lesson, its content, and student outcomes.
You may have noticed that providing background information is not part of
the beginning of the lesson. Within the Language Lessons, students will
need to rely upon the words and punctuation to create meaning without the
assistance of the teacher or other background building activities prior to
the learning experience. As students progress through the activities, they
will need information and build the background that we typically provide
up front. When students enter the world of college and career, they will
need to be equipped with the necessary skills to determine context,
question a text, determine the information they will need to know to
increase understanding, and know where to locate that information.
Language  Page 5
“Superman and Me” By Sherman Alexie
The following essay appeared as part of a series, “The Joy of Reading and Writing” published by the LA Times.
This essay is also printed in The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading and
various anthologies including 50 Essays edited by Samuel Cohen.
I learned to read with a Superman comic book. Simple enough, I suppose. I cannot recall which particular
Superman comic book I read, nor can I remember which villain he fought in that issue. I cannot remember the
plot, nor the means by which I obtained the comic book. What I can remember is this: I was 3 years old, a
Spokane Indian boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state. We
were poor by most standards, but one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or
another, which made us middle-class by reservation standards. I had a brother and three sisters. We lived on a
combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food.
My father, who is one of the few Indians who went to Catholic school on purpose, was an avid reader of
westerns, spy thrillers, murder mysteries, gangster epics, basketball player biographies and anything else he
could find. He bought his books by the pound at Dutch’s Pawn Shop, Goodwill, Salvation Army and Value
Village. When he had extra money, he bought new novels at supermarkets, convenience stores and hospital gift
shops. Our house was filled with books. They were stacked in crazy piles in the bathroom, bedrooms and living
room. In a fit of unemployment-inspired creative energy, my father built a set of bookshelves and soon filled
them with a random assortment of books about the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, the Vietnam War and the
entire 23-book series of the Apache westerns. My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an
aching devotion, I decided to love books as well.
I can remember picking up my father’s books before I could read. The words themselves were mostly foreign,
but I still remember the exact moment when I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the purpose of a
paragraph. I didn’t have the vocabulary to say “paragraph,” but I realized that a paragraph was a fence that held
words. The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose. They had some specific reason
for being inside the same fence. This knowledge delighted me. I began to think of everything in terms of
paragraphs. Our reservation was a small paragraph within the United States. My family’s house was a
paragraph, distinct from the other paragraphs of the LeBrets to the north, the Fords to our south and the Tribal
School to the west. Inside our house, each family member existed as a separate paragraph but still had genetics
and common experiences to link us. Now, using this logic, I can see my changed family as an essay of seven
paragraphs: mother, father, older brother, the deceased sister, my younger twin sisters and our adopted little
brother.
At the same time I was seeing the world in paragraphs, I also picked up that Superman comic book. Each panel,
complete with picture, dialogue and narrative was a three-dimensional paragraph. In one panel, Superman
breaks through a door. His suit is red, blue and yellow. The brown door shatters into many pieces. I look at the
narrative above the picture. I cannot read the words, but I assume it tells me that “Superman is breaking down
the door.” Aloud, I pretend to read the words and say, “Superman is breaking down the door.” Words, dialogue,
also float out of Superman’s mouth. Because he is breaking down the door, I assume he says, “I am breaking
down the door.” Once again, I pretend to read the words and say aloud, “I am breaking down the door” In this
way, I learned to read.
Language  Page 6
This might be an interesting story all by itself. A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and
advances quickly. He reads “Grapes of Wrath” in kindergarten when other children are struggling through
“Dick and Jane.” If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a
prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity. He grows into a man who
often speaks of his childhood in the third-person, as if it will somehow dull the pain and make him sound more
modest about his talents.
A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike. I fought
with my classmates on a daily basis. They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for
answers, for volunteers, for help. We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. Most lived up to
those expectations inside the classroom but subverted them on the outside. They struggled with basic reading in
school but could remember how to sing a few dozen powwow songs. They were monosyllabic in front of their
non-Indian teachers but could tell complicated stories and jokes at the dinner table. They submissively ducked
their heads when confronted by a non-Indian adult but would slug it out with the Indian bully who was 10 years
older. As Indian children, we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world. Those who failed were
ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by non-Indians.
I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night, until I could barely
keep my eyes open. I read books at recess, then during lunch, and in the few minutes left after I had finished my
classroom assignments. I read books in the car when my family traveled to powwows or basketball games. In
shopping malls, I ran to the bookstores and read bits and pieces of as many books as I could. I read the books
my father brought home from the pawnshops and secondhand. I read the books I borrowed from the library. I
read the backs of cereal boxes. I read the newspaper. I read the bulletins posted on the walls of the school, the
clinic, the tribal offices, the post office. I read junk mail. I read auto-repair manuals. I read magazines. I read
anything that had words and paragraphs. I read with equal parts joy and desperation. I loved those books, but I
also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life.
Despite all the books I read, I am still surprised I became a writer. I was going to be a pediatrician. These days,
I write novels, short stories, and poems. I visit schools and teach creative writing to Indian kids. In all my years
in the reservation school system, I was never taught how to write poetry, short stories or novels. I was certainly
never taught that Indians wrote poetry, short stories and novels. Writing was something beyond Indians. I
cannot recall a single time that a guest teacher visited the reservation. There must have been visiting teachers.
Who were they? Where are they now? Do they exist? I visit the schools as often as possible. The Indian kids
crowd the classroom. Many are writing their own poems, short stories and novels. They have read my books.
They have read many other books. They look at me with bright eyes and arrogant wonder. They are trying to
save their lives. Then there are the sullen and already defeated Indian kids who sit in the back rows and ignore
me with theatrical precision. The pages of their notebooks are empty. They carry neither pencil nor pen. They
stare out the window. They refuse and resist. “Books,” I say to them. “Books,” I say. I throw my weight against
their locked doors. The door holds. I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.
http://whisperdownthewritealley.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/sherman-alexies-the-joys-of-reading-writing-superman-me/
Language  Page 7
Directions for Students “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie
Step One: Read the excerpt to yourself and annotate the text.
Read the excerpt to yourself. Make note of words, phrases, and punctuation that intrigue you in some
way.
Look for irregularities, similarities, and unknowns.
Irregularity: I find it peculiar the way the author used this word.
Similarity: I am seeing a pattern here: in words, phrasing, or ideas. (Diction and Syntax)
Unknowns: I don’t know what that means. Or I don’t know what that means in this context.
While you read, underline any details that develop the character of the narrator or his father.
Annotate in the margins anything you notice about the characters.
Step Two: In this step your teacher or a classmate will read aloud the selection.
Listen carefully to the words being read. If you have read a word incorrectly, you may want to make note
of that change. True understanding of a text means you will be able to paraphrase and restate the
text in your own words.
Step Three: In this step, you will be asked to reread carefully the passage and highlight
it.
FirstFind four different colored highlighters. In
small groups, reread the selection and highlight
your underlined passages: one color for direct
characterization of the narrator, one for indirect
characterization of the narrator, one for direct
characterization of the father and a fourth color
for indirect characterization of the father.
NextUse the highlighted passages to
complete the handout on characterization
below.
Step Four: In this step, you will be asked to carefully reread the passage.
Make sure to
find textual evidence to support each answer.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph in regards to the piece as a whole?
2. The second paragraph makes a shift (a change)? What do you think the shift is? What is the author’s
purpose in making this shift?
3. In the second paragraph Alexie states that his father was “one of the few Indians who went to
Catholic school on purpose…” What are all the important characterizations that can be made about
his father through this simple statement? What does this suggest about the majority of the
reservations feelings towards this school? Why might the reservation harbor such feelings?
4. In paragraph three the author uses an extended metaphor. What is Alexie’s metaphor and how does
he use it to define and explain two very different things?
5. Explain the method Alexie used to teach himself to read as he explains it in paragraph four which
begins, “At the same time…”.
6. In the fifth paragraph (that begins “This might be…”) underline and then examine the pronouns.
Then, look back at the pronouns in paragraph 4. Examine the shift that occurs. What is the shift?
What is the author’s purpose in making this shift? How would this paragraph be different without
this shift?
7. In the sixth paragraph (that begins “A smart Indian”), underline ALL the pronouns. Discuss the
change in pronouns here. What is the author’s purpose in using both first and third person singular
and plural pronouns? What does he suggest about his place in the culture by his choice in pronouns?
Language  Page 8
8. Now, underline the pronouns in paragraph seven “I refused to fail”. What pronoun does he use here;
how many times is it repeated? Why this pronoun? Why so many times?
9. What is his experience when he returns to speak at reservation schools?
10. Compare and contrast the two types of students he encounters when he returns to the schools.
11. Look at the metaphor the author uses says “I throw my weight against their locked doors.” What
does he mean? Where else do you see the image of the door repeated? How does this metaphor
connect to his identity?
12. Underline the last sentence of both paragraph seven and paragraph eight. What is suggested by the
use of the pronoun “our” in paragraph eight? In what way has he connected his identity with that of
the students he is trying to help?
Step Five: Writing
Option 1: After completing the student handout on characterization, write a descriptive paragraph of the
two characters; examine their needs, dreams and aspirations. Use textual evidence to support your
claims.
Option 2: Why is the title of the piece “Superman and Me”? Analyze why you believe the author chose
this title and use evidence from the text to support your view.
Option 3: What is Alexie’s message about the role of literacy in society? What role does literacy play in
the success of individuals in a culture? Use textual evidence to support your claims.
Option 4: How do Alexie’s shifts in pronouns throughout “Superman and Me” help to symbolize the
development of his identity and his place and role in his society? Use textual evidence to support your
claims.
Language  Page 9
Student Handout: Characterization in “Superman and Me”
Examples from text of Direct
Characterization of the narrator
Examples from text of Indirect
Characterization of the narrator
What do these examples tell the
reader about the character?
Examples from text of Direct
Characterization of the father
Examples from text of Indirect
Characterization of the father
What do these examples tell the
reader about the character?
Language  Page 10