0 Character Study Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of our Character Study!

You can read up on Part 1 HERE!

Our Analyzing Character Unit is in FULL swing in our classroom.

We started by discussing the different types of characters in our books. Since we've had many read alouds and read a lot of mentor texts this year, it was easy to refer back to stories we've read together as a class.

Once students were familiar with the types of characters, we went more in-depth with personality traits and physical traits. To demonstrate these concepts, we read the story Boundless Grace, which is a phenomenal mentor text for not only character traits, but for character change as well!

Since I teach 5th graders, we took traits to another level and discussed how authors may come out and explicitly tell you about a character's personality and/or physical traits, but often times do not. Instead, you have to infer these traits from a character's actions, dialogue, thinking, etc.

Studying character traits lasted a few days and I met with groups to re-teach, review, and enrich. I used task cards to give my lower groups quick and easy practice to help with these concepts.

Switching it up now and then can be very beneficial for your lower groups. If students are struggling with reading and comprehension, the idea of inferring character traits may seem overwhelming to them. By providing my students with these short passages to infer character traits, they had the opportunity for extra practice and felt less overwhelmed with the task.

For a quick (and FUN, SUPER CUTE HALLWAY DISPLAY, BONUS!!) formative assessment on physical and personality traits, we completed these Open Mind Profiles which show the inside of our character's brain.

After a few days reading different mentor texts and analyzing/inferring traits, we then moved into character change.

I went back to our original mentor text of Boundless Grace to make those meaningful connections with my students.

This book is also great because so many of my students can connect to the character's problem in the story. Essentially this is what we want our readers to do, isn't it? Not only comprehend and see the character change, but to also take away the "bigger picture" or message and apply it to their own lives? :)

To assess my students' understanding, I gave them a quick reading passage and assessment.

Next, we will start to explore the concept of character conflicts. We will learn about the different type of character conflicts in order to prepare for our next unit on plot.

All of the posters, over 10 graphic organizers, activities, task cards (and much more!!!)  can be found HERE in my Analyzing Characters Pack!

Grab a copy of Boundless Grace to use in your own classroom!

Just added: I wrote a blog post on Inferring Character Traits Through Dialogue (Plus a Free Graphic Organizer). Click HERE to check it out!