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Feb 23, 2016 · One such reading strategy is determining character traits. This is important because it allows students to examine characters and their growth, helps them obtain more meaning out of texts and helps them become more conscientious readers. Here are a list of steps to help with teaching character traits.
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A creative list of fantastic ways to teach character traits...
- Nightly News With Safa
- Teaching About Character Traits in Reading Can Be Challenging But Fun!
- Define Character Traits
- Evaluate Character Traits as Positive, Negative, Or Neutral
- Do An Art Project Involving Your Student’S Character Traits
- Use Mentor Texts: Fiction
- Use Mentor Texts: Fairy Tales
- Use Mentor Texts: Fables
- Use Real People
- Use Task Cards
- Independent Work
One of the hardest parts for kids is that in most pieces of literature, the character traits are somewhat abstract. The author doesn’t directly tell the reader what the character is like, which forces kids to have to learn to piece it together by making inferences based on what the character says and does. So our job as teachers is to equip our min...
First, we define character traits and talk about what is and isn’t a character trait. One of the things I use is this anchor chart to guide our discussions about a character’s outward appearance vs. his/her inner character. Then we brainstorm a list of character traits on a separate anchor chart as a class. Of course, I already have a pre-made list...
When the anchor chart with all of the character traits is done, I like to revisit it the next day and talk about the difference between positive and negative character traits. We go through the list and mark a plus or minus sign next to each trait. For those traits that could be viewed either way, we mark these with an “n” for neutral.
The next thing we do is an art project. There are a number of really good projects, like doing Wordles on the computer, or making silhouettes, but I usually have the kids draw cartoon caricatures which they label. To do this, we look at the character chart and the kids choose 10 of the character traits which describe themselves. After jotting these...
Once I feel that the kids have a basic knowledge of character traits, it’s time to dig into text together. I love choosing fiction in the form of mentor texts because they are short but oh, so rich! After reading each book, we discuss each character, what character traits were shown, and how we know this. The “how we know this” is an important part...
Besides using fiction, fairy tales are great to use because they often have very black and white type characters, which make them ideal for identifying character traits practice. It’s fun to compare and contrast the villains and the heroes, that are present in so many of these classic tales.
Fables are another treasure trove resource for character traits because the writers often portrayed them in simplistic or sometimes exaggerated ways to make sure that the readers got the point of the story without much trouble. Fables also have the added “short text” bonus, which I love for practicing skills. Rather than reading 100 pages to figure...
Using real people, whether it is a historical person from the social studies book, a famous person from a biography, or even the principal (if he/she is a great example, which I’m hoping would be the case), real people are super interesting for character traits examples. Another plus to using historical figures is that they can help you integrate r...
Task cards are always one of my favorite things to use in the classroom. When kids think of task cards, they usually think “game” or “fun” but I think task cards are actually a “great learning opportunity!” I created a set of Character Traits Task Cards Print and Digitalthat I like to use that have mini-stories on each of the 32 cards. I like to se...
Now that the kids have become fairly well versed in determining character traits, it’s time to kick the little birdies out of the nest a bit, so they can do some independent work. I love using lots of passages and graphic organizers from my Characters, Settings and Events: Print and Digital. With 48 pages (including 32 task cards), there’s enough m...
- Why teach character analysis? Character analysis, or identifying character and personality traits, is an approachable way to get students used to the rigorous expectations for deep thinking about literature.
- Getting started teaching character traits. Identifying traits is an important foundational skill. Whether this is your first year teaching reading or you're looking for some new ideas to incorporate into your classroom, my hope is you'll find some ideas and ready-to-use resources you can add to your lesson plans for this skill.
- Before Reading: Introducing Character Traits. Character traits can be hard for younger learners to grasp. While many things are spelled out for them in early readers, character analysis requires students to make inferences based on clues in the text.
- Transitioning to Text: Guided Practice. Once your students have a solid grasp of what character traits are, you're likely ready to transition them toward identifying the traits of characters in a short text.
Writers develop characters with myriad traits to help readers build empathy or antipathy, relate to the narrative, create realism, and develop various plot points and storylines. Looking for activities, lessons, and printables on character traits to use in your classroom?
- Focus on Character Traits Vocabulary. Most kids know common character traits like kind, friendly, and honest, but many lack the vocabulary for more complex traits like timid, loyal, generous, or even malicious, gullible, or intimidating!
- Teach Outside Vs Inside Traits. Many students confuse physical traits with personality traits. We identify physical traits by using our eyes and describing how the character looks on the outside but we determine personality traits by noticing the character’s thoughts, feelings, words, and actions over time.
- Explain Emotions Vs Character Traits. If a character feels sad in a story, that doesn’t necessarily mean the character has a gloomy or hopeless personality.
- Discuss Character Changes with Sentence Stems. Noticing how characters change over time takes repeated practice and lots of discussion. Students must learn to use the text evidence to determine both the change and why it happened.
Character traits usually refer to the characteristics or attributes that make that character unique. They describe their external appearance and their personality. While character triats usually remain consistent, they can go through slight changes during the charcter’s life.
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Nov 21, 2023 · Learn the character definition in literature with examples. See character development and different types, such as protagonist, static, and flat characters. Updated: 11/21/2023.
