2012 Teaching Resources
Analyzing Character Traits
Character analysis becomes easy with a 24-page packet packed with mini-lessons, graphic organizers, and activities. A must-have for your curriculum library.
EngageNY
Key Incidents Reveal Aspects of Character: Survival at Sea (Pages 114-168)
Learn from experience. As part of their study of Unbroken, scholars use a turn-and-talk strategy to discuss Louie's experiences and the presence of God while he is lost at sea. They then read quotes from the text and infer what the words...
EngageNY
Analyzing Character: Launching Pygmalion, Part 2
Readers of Pygmalion use Eliza Character Tracker Parts one and two to notice and wonder about character analysis. They read text excerpts and mark details that show how Eliza feels and why she acts in certain ways. To finish, they...
K20 LEARN
Femme Fatales - The Landlady and Mrs. Maloney: Character Analysis Across Multiple Texts
Two stories by Roald Dahl, "Lamb to the Slaughter" and "The Landlady" provide readers an opportunity to compare stories by the same author. After a close reading of the stories, teams select a character from one of the tales, craft...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Text Analysis and Character Revelations: Flowers for Algernon
What does your character reveal about you? Scholars carry out several activities to determine the reveal of character in Flowers for Algernon. Readers answer text dependent questions, complete diary entries, write reflections, and use...
EngageNY
Planning the First Draft of the Character Confessional Narrative
Scholars read and analyze a model character confessional narrative to help guide their writing. Then, they plan the first draft of a character confessional based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
EngageNY
Launching the Novel: Character Analysis of Ha
Scholars receive numbers as they work in groups to read Inside Out & Back Again. The instructor calls out specific numbers for readers to share the group's thoughts. Then, they use a model passage to demonstrate the effective actions...
PBS
Character vs. Society in The Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is difficult to read and difficult to teach. The novel is so highly regarded that it is one of most often listed as an option for the AP Literature and Composition exam. The materials in this packet from PBS...
Brigham Young University
Introducing the Text and Learning the Process of Script Analysis
Where do directors and set designers get their ideas so that the set they build creates the mood and atmosphere the director wants for a production? From the script! Introduce theater high schoolers to the script analysis techniques used...
EngageNY
Collecting Details: The Challenges Ha Faces and Ha as a Dynamic Character
What is a dynamic character? Using an interesting resource, scholars set out to answer the question. They create graphic organizers to collect details about character development as they read the novel Inside Out & Back Again. They...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Character Changes Lesson and iPad Assignment
Round, flat, static, dynamic. As part of a characterization study, scholars review the different types of characters and create a slide show demonstrating how a dynamic character in a story they have read changes throughout the tale.
EngageNY
Analyzing Character: Understanding Atticus (Chapter 1, cont.)
Scholars use a Note-catcher to gather text evidence to reveal the character of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. After collecting evidence, they work with a partner to make an inference about the character and then share their...
EngageNY
Inferring about Character: Getting to Know Percy (Chapters 1 and 2)
What a character! Scholars look at two chapters in The Lightning Thief to make inferences about the character Percy. They record both the character's challenges and responses. Learners then work in their triads to discuss the gist...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Getting to Know a Character: What Details in the Text Help Us Understand Ha?
Take a walk with me. Scholars participate in a gallery walk of the anchor charts their groups created about Inside Out & Back Again in the previous lesson plan. Pupils take notes about Ha's character on sticky notes as they take the...
EngageNY
Analyzing Character: Louie Zamperini
Let's talk! Scholars create discussion appointments using map locations. After completing their appointment books, readers look closely at a few Unbroken pages. They use sentence strips to record details from their readings that help...
EngageNY
Inferring about Character: Close Reading of The Lightning Thief (Chapter 3)
Stick it to them! Scholars work to write the gist of sections of text on sticky notes and place them in chapter three of The Lightning Thief. They then share what they wrote with classmates in their triad. The group reads selections of...
EngageNY
Character Analysis: How Do Personal Possessions Reveal Aspects of Characters?
Learners use a jigsaw activity to examine characters in "Left Behind." Each group member focuses on a different character and then regroups to those with the same focus. Class members then return to their home groups for discussion...
ReadWriteThink
Heroes Are Made of This: Studying the Character of Heroes
What makes heroes and villains? A six-part unit plan asks young scholars to explore the concept of heroism and the characteristics they consider heroic and unheroic. Groups create character maps that focus on how characters are shaped by...
EngageNY
Reading for Gist and Analyzing Point of View: Moon Shadow
Character analysis isn't always earth-shattering. Using a graphic organizer, pupils analyze Moon Shadow's point of view following the earthquake in Laurence Yep's Dragonwings. Also, scholars co-create an anchor chart showing the...
Curated OER
Biopoem: Ender's Game
Here's an activity designed to encourage character analysis. Readers craft a biopoem for a character in Orson Scott Cards' popular science fiction novel Ender's Game.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Language Analysis Based on Stave 1
Class members meet the original scrooge, the Dickens character whose name has become synonymous with a cold-hearted, tight-fisted, miser. Using the provided worksheet, readers closely examine context clues to determine the meanings of...
EngageNY
Analyzing Character: Who is Lyddie?
Character analysis can help readers feel more connected to a literary text. Scholars explore the topic by writing an acrostic poem about the main character from Katherine Paterson's novel, Lyddie. Then, pupils watch a short video to help...
K20 LEARN
We've Got Character! Literary Analysis: Characterization
How authors bring characters to life and make them believable is the focus of a lesson plan on characterization. Readers closely examine passages from To Kill a Mockingbird and Dreamland Burning, noting details that reveal the...
EngageNY
Grade 11 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 4
Scholars analyze words Robert Browning used in My Last Duchess to give readers insight into the Duke. Pupils review homework and form groups to study lines 31-35 closely. They then respond to guided questions and complete a brief writing...