Teacherfiles
Character Connections
Making connections with characters in literature is a great way to engage young children in reading. This task is made much easier with this Venn diagram template that asks young learners to compare and contrast themselves with a...
Curated OER
Build a Connection
Learners discuss their personal connections with stories they've read in the past and identify techniques to connect with more stories. They create illustrations, construct task cards, and complete sentence stems based on books they read...
Curated OER
Character Bust: Ceramics Lesson
Whether it is a protagonist, antagonist, hero or heroine, characters are a must in any story. Learners analyze a character from a narrative they are reading, then use that character as inspiration. They create a ceramic bust depicting...
Curated OER
Character Development Project
Read Dangerous Minds with your language learning disabled pupils to identify characteristics and connect to literature. This is a specific activity intended for use with the suggested book. The class uses a character map as a way to...
Curated OER
Novel Character Study
Students complete a character study using a database to compile information from a novel. They design a five slide presentation highlighting the character's reaction to different situations in the book. They write an acrostic poem using...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Text Connections
There are so many different ways to help learners make text-to-self connections. Here, fifth graders will create tableaus that show an event from a chapter in the class reader. They'll discuss why they chose that event to dramatize and...
Curated OER
Comparing and Contrasting Yourself to a Character
First and second graders explore character as a story element. They listen to the first part of the story First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg and observe the teacher modeling a compare and contrast characters activity. Learners listen...
Curated OER
AWARD CERTIFICATE FOR A CHARACTER
Connect to real-world experiences by having your primary learners create an award certificate based upon literal and inferential information from a story. They present the award to a character from a story and explain the criteria used....
Curated OER
Become a Character: Adjectives, Character Traits, and Perspective
High schoolers use an online chart to match the character traits of a character in a book they are reading with specific actions the character takes. Students then work in pairs to "become" one of the major characters in a book and...
Curated OER
Character in a Box
Partners choose, research, and analyze fictional or historical characters and design character life boxes to represent them. They also compose a rhyme royal, which they understand inductively by deconstructing examples. Based largely on...
Curated OER
Do You Have Character?
Sixth graders read Katherine Paterson's novel, Bridge to Terabithia, and watch a video of Maurice Sendak's book, Where the Wild Things Are. They examine the characters in both stories that share similar characteristics. Students use the...
Curated OER
Enter Players: Constructing Character Connections in Hamlet
Pupils research the characters of Hamlet. In this Shakespearean literature lesson, students complete a pre-reading activity designed to improve their familiarity with the characters in the story. In small groups, pupils work to...
EngageNY
Inferring about Character: Close Reading of the Poem “Inside Out” and Introducing QuickWrites
Grab a partner! Scholars partner up to take a second look at the verse novel Inside Out & Back Again. They discuss questions about and connections to the novel and then learn how to complete a Quick Write task properly. To finish,...
Curated OER
Cinderella
Explore positive and negative character traits and universal themes in the story of Cinderella with primary learners. Story elements are reviewed and discussion questions are listed. Learners practice retelling the story and begin a...
Curated OER
Hamilton and Burr : Compare and Contrast
Who were Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton? High schoolers examine the character traits of these historical figures and watch the video, The Duel. Hamilton vs. Burr: An Event that Changed History (available from PBS), to gain an...
Curated OER
Creating Character: Courage
Students explore the concept of courage, both in themselves and in others. In this history and character education lesson, students discuss the characteristics of courage and what it means and how one can show it. Students listen to...
Curated OER
Creating Supporting Characters
Supporting characters need detail and characteristics just like a main character. Keep your budding authors entrenched in detail as they write their novels. This lesson focuses on developing supporting characters using personal...
Curated OER
Cause Célèbre
In this exercise, learners identify characters from an "Archie" comic and discuss the relevance of "Archie" to today's youth. They create public service advertisements featuring celebrities to address common concerns among teenagers in...
EngageNY
Launching Readers Theater Groups: Identifying Passages from Esperanza Rising for Readers Theater that Connect to the UDHR
Teach young readers how to compare two texts and select passages that exemplify a specific theme with Lesson 6 from Unit 3. Begin by modeling how an expert reader selects examples from a text, performing a think aloud on how Article 2 of...
Curated OER
Running Out of Time: Letter to a Character
Once your learners have a firm handle on the characters in Running Out of Time, invite them to write letters to chosen characters about the events of the novel. Pupils then share with others who wrote to the same character.
Curated OER
Dragonwings: Explore Chapters 1-5
If you are beginning Laurence Yep's Dragonwings, this will provide activities for the first five chapters. The objectives include making connections to oneself and the world, organizing information and events, vocabulary acquisition,...
Curated OER
Direct and Indirect Characterization
How does an author develop his or her characters? Using the short story "On the Bridge" by Todd Strasser, readers study character development by looking for examples of both direct and indirect characterization. They plot these points on...
Curated OER
Special Traits: Alabama quarter reverse
Who knew a state quarter could say so much? Alabama's quarter is embossed with an image of Helen Keller, pupils will use this image to think about what the phrase "Spirit of courage" means. They will use a graphic organizer to...
Curated OER
Teaching Peace through Literature and Song
Negative effects of bullying come to light through listening to the book Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. Class members identify philanthropic acts portrayed in the story and make illustrations to connect them to their own...