Literary Sociograms

What is it? A literary sociogram is a graphic organiser that represents the relationships among characters in a literary text. What is its purpose? It helps students to think more deeply about the literary texts they read or view. Johnson and Louis (1987) described the construction of sociograms as the most valuable literature teaching technique they had encountered. How do I do it? There are many variations, but this is a simple explanation based on that given by Johnson and Louis. In a sociogram, the central character is placed at the centre of the page and the other characters are placed around it. Arrows are used to show the direction of the relationship and a brief description of the nature of the relationship is placed alongside each arrow. (Students manipulate pieces of paper with the names of characters, until they feel they have arranged them in the best way to reflect their understanding of the text. Then the names can be attached to a piece of paper and the rest of the sociogram devised.) A number of conventions may be useful in developing sociograms: Place the central character/s at the centre of the diagram Let the physical distance between characters reflect the perceived psychological distance between characters. Let the size of the shape representing a character vary with (a) the importance, or (b) the power of the character. Show the direction of a relationship by an arrow, and its nature by a brief label. Represent substantiated relationships by a solid line and inferred relationships by a broken line. Circle active characters with a solid line. Circle significantly absent characters with a broken line. Place the characters who support the main character on one side of a dividing line, and antagonistic characters on the other (goodies vs baddies).

When working with simple stories, one sociogram may be enough to capture the relationships. With longer or more complex stories, a series of diagrams will help to capture the changing relationships. A chapter could be a reasonable unit to handle with a novel. Johnson and Louis suggest constructing a sociogram once the central conflict of the story has been encountered, and again shortly before the climax. Students need demonstrations of the construction of different kinds of sociograms before they can work independently but Johnson and Louis caution against trying to create a sociogram based on the combined reflections of the whole class. It may be more effective for teachers to use information from the class to develop a demonstration sociogram that reflects their own coherent interpretation of the story. How can I adapt it? Younger students can use pictures of characters and word cards to construct their sociograms. Software such as Inspiration or MindMan could be used. Students can work independently and then share their sociograms or small groups of students can work collaboratively.

Sociograms can be used to help explore power relationships implied in non-fiction texts such as newspaper reports and feature articles, aiding in the development of critical literacy skills.

How can it be used to evaluate students language learning? Listening carefully to students explanations of their sociograms helps to provide insight into their comprehension and their ability to make inferences from texts. Where can I find out more? Terry D. Johnson and Daphne R. Louis, (1987) Literacy through Literature, Methuen.