Copyright Copyright 2012 Kaylee's Education Studio

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2 Copyright 2012 All rights reserved. The purchaser may make copies for individual, classroom, or home use. Reproduction for school wide or district wide use is prohibited. To obtain permission to use material from this work beyond the terms of the copyright, you may send a request through to boslen2009@eagles.ewu.edu. 2

3 Table of Contents Sections Character Traits Handout Graphic Organizers Writing Prompts Activities

4 Character Traits active brainy cowardly adventurous brave cruel affectionate bright curious calm demanding careless dependable cautious cheerful angry childish annoyed anxious fair fearless charming afraid evil foolish friendly funny clumsy gentle confident arrogant depressed giving determined glamorous discouraged gloomy disrespectful dull artistic eager athletic bold bored bossy confused easy-going cool embarrassed cooperative encouraging energetic 4 graceful

5 grateful loving rich stubborn greedy loyal rude sweet grouchy lucky scared talented guilty magical secretive thankful selfish thoughtless serious touchy shy trustworthy silly weak musical weird happy mysterious wise hateful nervous helpful noisy honest obedient ignorant picky smart imaginative polite sneaky impatient popular spoiled impolite proud independent quiet innocent responsible jealous lazy leader strange lonely strict 5

6 Name: Date: Create a Character Basic Facts Name: Age: 3 Character Traits Where do they live? Do they live in the past, present, or future? Do they live in the city or country? Draw your character Write a short history of your character. 6

7 Name: Date: CHARACTER CHART 7

8 Name: Date: CHARACTER TRAITS Directions: Choose a character from a book that you have read and then find four characteristics of the character. Write the characteristics and the evidence in the boxes. Character Trait Character Trait Evidence Evidence Character Trait Character Trait Evidence Evidence 8

9 Choose two characters and write down the characters differences and similarities in the circles. 9

10 Directions: Choose a character from a story you have read. Describe the characters personality and beliefs at the beginning and end of the story. In the middle box describe the event that caused the character to change. 10

11 Name: Date: Writing Prompt What would your character do if they where asked to fight a dragon? Make sure you include your character's traits. 11

12 Name: Date: Writing Prompt Your character has just been kidnapped by pirates. What will they do? 12

13 Name: Date: Writing Prompt Your character has decided to open a new restaurant. There is only one problem he/she doesn't know how to cook. What will they do? 13

14 Name: Date: Writing Prompt On the way home from school a bully starts to make fun of your character. What would they do? What should they do? 14

15 Name: Date: Writing Prompt You character has been stranded on a desert island. How will they survive? Can they escape? 15

16 Name: Date: Writing Prompt You character wakes up one morning and discovers that s/he can talk to animals, and they talk back! What would you character do with his/her new talent? 16

17 Name: Date: Writing Prompt Today in your characters classroom there is a new student. Your character decides that s/he wants to become friends with them. What do they do to get the new student to like them? 17

18 Character Analysis Activities Journal writing- Each day after reading a novel, students write a diary entry from the perspective of one of the character's in the story. Students should focus on a characters emotions, hopes, fears, and actions of the character. Character Scrapbook This online tool from scholastic will help students create a scrapbook of a character. Design the characters appearance, describe their personality, challenges that the character faced, Accomplishments, and what your know about that character. 18

19 Character Interviews What better way to help students learn about characters than to have them interview a character. Not only will students need to consider a characters traits they will also need to consider their emotions and motives when conducting an interview. An article by Swindall and Cantrell (1999) in the reading teacher describes a series of steps that an interview should take. The following steps are a shorten version based on their work. 1. After reading a book, have the students create a list of questions for the characters in the book. 2. Sort the questions by whom the question is for. Ask students if any important characters didn't receive any questions and allow students to create questions for them. 3. Read the questions. Take out the duplicates and allow students to write a few more questions. 4. Allow students to take turns being interviewed by their classmates as if they were the character. This activity helps students to put themselves into the role of a character and brings the story to life. Make copies of the following page to use as question slips. 19

20 Character : Question: Character : Question: Character : Question: Character : Question: Character : Question: 20

21 Character Trait Chart / Vocabulary Activity Before the lesson the teacher will create a chart of characters and their traits. The teacher will introduce the character trait vocabulary by giving a child friendly definition of the word and an example. The students will then go through each of the characters to decide whether the trait applies to that character. arrogant Mark Jenny Jose humble Cruel fearless undependable This activity allows students to learn new vocabulary while comparing characters. An article by Patrick Manyak (2007) gives a grade by grade vocabulary chart to help choose vocabulary terms. Comparing Characters Venn Diagram Have your students create a simple Venn Diagram of two characters. This will help students see the similarities and differences of the characters. Try having them compare the antagonist and protagonist. 21

22 Character Trading Cards The website Readwritethink.org has an online application that creates character trading cards that students can fill in information and then print-out the finished cards. On the cards students get to write about the setting, physical appearance of the character, the character's personality, thoughts and insights of the character. They get to describe the story's structure goal, problem, outcome of the character. The characters actions and statements. Finally the get to describe their personal reaction to the character. Character Trading Cards If you don't have enough time or computers to let all of your students do this on the Readwritethink site. I've created a template on the next page that you can print-out and let students make without the use of computers. The template is sized so that you can put them on 3 X 5 index cards. 22

23 Character Trading Cards Choose a character from a book that you have been reading. Draw a picture of your character, write their name, the book their from, and a favorite quote by the character or about the character on the front of the card. On the back of the card tell what the characters goal/desire are, what major problem they faced, and what the out come was. Describe the characters personality and explain what makes this character unique. Cut out and paste these two parts to an index card. Goal - Desire Name of Character Problem Outcome Draw your character Title of book Personality Favorite Quote What makes this character unique? 23

24 Dynamic vs. Static Characters A dynamic character changes during the course of a book, while a static character remains virtually the same. To help students understand in more depth a story it would be valuable for them to examine one of the characters and the events which led the character to change. Use the above graphic organizer to help students organize their thoughts about how a character changes and the events that caused that character to change. 24

25 References Patrick Manyak. (2007). Character trait vocabulary: A schoolwide approach. The Reading Teacher, 60(6), Retrieved January 25, 2012, from Research Library. (Document ID: ). Vickie Swindall, & R Jeffrey Cantrell. (1999). Character interviews help bring literature to life. The Reading Teacher, 53(1), Retrieved January 25, 2012, from Research Library. (Document ID: ). 25