Curated OER
Comparing Good and Bad Character Traits of Historical and Current Figures
Young scholars create a chart with two columns. In one column include good and bad character traits of historical figures in biographies and historical fiction. In the second column include good and bad character traits of current famous...
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.
Curated OER
5th Grade Historical Fiction: Solder's Letter
A picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes a single word can go a long way as well. Practice making inferences about character traits with a letter written from the perspective of a soldier in the American Revolution.
Curated OER
Stir Up a Character Analysis Recipe
What ingredients make up a character? A cup of honesty, a dash of humor, a pinch of cynicism? Based on real cookbooks they review in class, learners at any grade level three and up write recipes to describe characters familiar to your...
Curriculum Corner
Fiction Graphic Organizers
Analyze a fictional text with a four-page packet that explores a story's main character and moral, challenges scholars to ask and answer questions about the text, and to create a story map.
Curated OER
"Split" Character Studies in Crime and Punishment
Learners write an essay evaluating split character traits on major characters in Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. In this lesson students are guided through discussion questions, group assignments, and vocabulary work. The lesson...
Curated OER
Character Attributes in Writing
Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances. In this theatre lesson, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through many...
Curriculum Corner
Fiction Graphic Organizers
Get an in-depth look into a narrative text with a three-page worksheet that examines a story's character—actions, sayings, thoughts, and appearance—setting, and challenges scholars to write a brief summary about what they've read.
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...
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Need a model for character education? Benjamin Franklin presents himself as in a constant state of striving to become the man he hoped to be, making his autobiography is far more accessible to learners than those of people who consider...
Curated OER
Understanding Protagonists and Antagonists
How can you tell if a character is a villain? What about a hero? Work on literary analysis with an engaging language arts learning exercise. After completing an activity about the four types of conflict, learners fill out a character map...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 5: Creating a Supporting Character
As a class, young writers learn how to develop a strong supporting character. They think and discuss a good friend they know, they use that friend as a basis for a potential supporting character. They create a supporting character as a...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - Mrs Twit
"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly." The second lesson in an 11-part unit that accompanies The Twits by Roald Dahl uses poetry to encourage positive character traits. Mrs. Twit has ugly thoughts, but those thoughts can...
Curated OER
Yakety-Yak!
Students examine the use of dialogue while writing stories. They decide what two different characters would say to each other based on their character traits of being nasty and nice. They complete an activity page.
Curated OER
Antagonist
Young learners explore the antagonist. They retell Hansel and Gretel and identify the witch and the stepmother as antagonists. They then brainstorm common character traits of an antagonist, and then write a paragraph describing an...
Curated OER
Life Size Characters
Sixth graders analyze character traits and create a life size character outline. In this character analysis lesson, 6th graders analyze character traits of a character using character webs and poems. Students then create a life size...
Curated OER
Personality Poems
Students create a bio-poem for themselves or characters in stories they have read. They explore common character traits.
Curated OER
Trickster Tales
Students study folk tales and moral lessons from cultures around the world. In this character traits lesson, students study moral lessons through the character traits in various cultures folk tales. Students complete 11 activities...
Curated OER
Character Scrapbook Teacher's Guide
Students analyze a book's characters and create a scrapbook to print and save. In this on line interactive characterization lesson plan, students identify character traits and gain a deeper understanding of a book's characters.
Literacy Design Collaborative
Exploring Character Development in The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
How did the Civil Rights Movement affect young people in the United States? Scholars read Christopher Paul Curtis' novel, The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963. Next, they write compare and contrast essays showing how the main characters...
Curated OER
What a Character!
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...
Curated OER
The Outsiders
Tenth graders complete a variety of activities related to the first two chapters of the book The Outsiders. They define metaphor, simile, idiom, and hyperbole, and take a vocabulary pre-quiz. In small groups, they write a character...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 4: Creating Main Characters
Creating a good main character is a must when writing a creative narrative or novel. Elementary aged writers create main characters for the novel they are writing. They first use themselves as a models, then create a character as a...
Curated OER
Zero The Hero, Trout The Lout
Students use a graphic organizer create a character sketch of Trout Walker from the novel Holes. Using the provided worksheet, students fill in the important character traits of Trout. Worksheet and answer key are provided with the lesson.