Learning how to draw inferences from text is a key reading comprehension skill. Here's a instructional activity that gives readers a chance to practice by offering 20 descriptive sentences and asking kids to identify the inferred...

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is known for rich character development. Expose your class to indirect characterization and all that it involves with this activity. Learners look at quotes, determine what method of characterization is...

The best stories usually have the best characters and identifying characterization in literature is key to fostering good writing skills. The four most common characterizations are defined in this slide show. Each slide presents a...

A wide variety of information regarding the elements of fiction is presented in this PowerPoint. Viewers are directed to trace their hand on a blank piece of paper and label each finger with one of the 5 elements of fiction. Additional...

Use these study questions to test your class on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. These mostly higher-level questions have the potential to be test questions, discussion questions, homework questions, or essay questions. The...

Learners discover characterization techniques and methods. In this characterization instructional activity, students choose favorite fiction characters and discuss what makes a character come alive. Learners then describe a family member...

Explore the impact a narrator's point of view has on a story with a reading of the children's book, Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. Written in four different voices, the story is told and retold from different perspectives to...

Learners examine the methods of effective characterization. For this writing skills lesson, students discuss how emotions, dialogue, actions, and physical descriptions build believable characters. Learners then use the methods of...

Ponyboy, Johnny, Winston, and Darry come alive in a lesson that focuses on the details S. E. Hinton uses to characterize the Greasers and the Socials. The class first observes the actors' words; the thoughts revealed their effect on...

Young scholars learn about characterization techniques in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  In this Adventures of Tom Sawyerinstructional activity, students write a description of one character through the eyes of another character and...

Students read and comprehend a piece of fictional writing, analyze how setting, characterization, and plot affect the theme of a story and work in a group to create a new writing assignment. This 5-day plan culminates in students writing...

In this characterization activity, students fill out a graphic organizer chart. Students write the character's name in the center and an example of each of the 4 characterization methods by the author. There are instructions to help.

Students explore characterization in Little Women. In this literature instructional activity, students participate in written analysis and research in order to explore Alcott's characterization in the novel.

In this reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 8 short answer questions based on characterization techniques used in the Sherlock Holmes series. 

Oskar Schell's narrative about his expedition to find out more about his father serves as a model for writers who are crafting their own narratives. Class members choose two characters from the novel and collect examples of the methods...

Readers of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner assume the voice of one of the characters from the novel and draft eight reflective journal entries and a one-page collage that depicts the character's interests, personal beliefs, etc.

A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers,...

In this comprehension check worksheet, students define 6 vocabulary words, define 2 literary terms, and respond to 12 short answer questions pertaining to chapter 12 of The Lord of the Flies in order to help them better understand the...

It can be difficult to refer back to a text when analyzing it, so annotation is a great tool for kids to track what they are reading. A thorough and well-organized lesson guides learners through the process of annotating William...

Round, flat, dynamic, static, and stock. Introduce viewers to the basic character types with a brief presentation that describes how to bring these characters to life. The presentation concludes with two photos. Ask your writers to...

Enrich your unit on Arthur Miller's The Crucible with a list of reading questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy. Kids answer questions and provide context for the knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and...

Comparing two texts can build a greater understanding of the texts and themes of the works. Take some time to follow the steps here to guide your pupils through the process of composing compare-and-contrast essays.

Students analyze graphical forms of Eudora Welty and interpret the shorts stories in the representations. In this graphical representations lesson, students analyze the short story genre in comic strips. Students then create their own...

Students investigate the role and nature of story-telling as it preserves history and culture and discuss how puppetry serves as an effective method of presentation. They create basic outlines for puppet shows that relay important...