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Character Analysis Teacher Resources
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Primary learners read Holly Keller’s That’s Mine, Horace, analyze the text and characters, and sequence the story. After discussing the experiences Walter encounters once he tells a fib, class members use a character analysis worksheet to identify the qualities found in the story’s characters. Finally, they write a friendly letter to one of the characters.
What ingredients make up a character? A cup of honesty, a dash of humor, a pinch of cynicism? Based on real cookbooks they review in class, learners at any grade level three and up write recipes to describe characters familiar to your class. Others try to decipher who the recipe describes.
After they conduct online research about a historical figure of their choice, 11th graders compose: a 3-5 page biography detailing their findings; a 1-2 page character analysis connecting life events to how the person turned out; and a single paragraph analyzing their impact on history. Allow several days of computer time to complete the writing process for each component.
Combining art, music, dance, and reading comprehension, this instructional activity is geared to reach all ability levels. After reading a variety of fables and discussing story elements and character traits, class members select a moral to use as the basis of their own fable about two characters, one with foibles and one without. Your fabulists then collaborate on a class mural, a music composition, and a dance which reflect the traits of characters in their stories. Document it all on a class website.
Some of what we know about a character is directly stated. Some of what we know is inferred by events in the story. Character maps help primary learners recognize the difference. After modeling with a story your class has read, pupils choose a character from one of their favorite books and use the maps to record and analyze traits. A character map template is available from Microsoft Visio.
Build reading comprehension skills with this lesson plan. Have your class listen, predict outcomes, retell the story, and produce a character web as you read the book Swimmy by Leo Lionni aloud. This lesson also asks learners to make connections between the book and their own prior knowledge about fish and oceans.
Explore script writing based on prose in a cross-curricular literacy lesson. After listening to the folktale The Drum, middle schoolers identify and describe specific story elements such as characters and events. They work in groups to write a script for the story, and each group performs its play.
Creating a good main character is a must when writing a creative narrative or novel. Elementary aged writers create main characters for the novel they are writing. They first use themselves as a models, then create a character as a class. After working through each of the processing questions they create main characters on their own.
A comprehensive list of questions guides preparation for writing a character analysis essay inspired by Leander Watts' book Stonecutter. In order for readers to find quotes to use in their essay, I'd share the questions prior to reading so the class can note useful citations as they go. Links to a reproducible character map and writing template for an introduction are included.
Who is a champion to your class? Elementary and middle schoolers think of a role-model from their lives. Then, in their journals, they write evidence of that person's perseverance. They identify the character trait of perseverance with the autobiographical character, Michelle Kwan. Additionally, they write a personal narrative essay that describes the steps they took to achieve a personal goal.