What a Character! - T-Charts

Building upon prior lessons in the series, this reading and writing exercise requires pupils to look back at their own writing, track character development in the novel The Cay, and analyze how Phillip has changed. The reading focus is...

How do you know what a character's personality is like if an author doesn't tell you? With a focus on character development in Esperanza Rising, pupils complete a jigsaw activity to analyze the actions of Mama, Abuelita, and Miguel. Once...

Whether you are working on a brief story, or sending your class off to compose novels, this resource will be a useful tool for building characters. Writers map out their character by describing looks, characteristics, personality, inner...

Why do people and characters act as they do? Require your class figure out the motivation of two people or characters they read about in a given text. In the short charts, pupils note down who, what they do, and why they do it. After...

In this identifying meanings of character traits worksheet, students define and explain the character traits ambitious, responsible, envious, considerate, strict, superstitious, efficient, polite, suspicious, and cruel. Students write 20...

Complete studies of the memorable characters in Richard Peck's novel A Long Way from Chicago. The lesson describes three different activities to help your class better understand characters in the story, character development in general,...

Middle schoolers read a novel and discuss character personality. First, they analyze a character in a novel and keep a chart or web of the character's identity, which includes specific examples from the book. They then write a script...

Readers practice character analysis by reviewing Gary Soto's short story "La Bamba" with the whole class (anything you've read together will work). They design t-shirts that feature traits and story elements to reveal the nature of a...

Start a instructional activity on poetic voice with a peer to peer discussion on what characterizes the strength in the voice with which a writer chooses to express himself/herself. In pairs, readers are tasked with reading and creating...

Students rewrite part of a novel in play format and act it out.  In this character lesson, students recognize the attributes of the main characters and their relationships.  Students relate their word choice to the genre.  Students...