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WHAT A CHARACTER!
Using Fictional Characters to Help Students Fall in Love with Reading

Introduction | Background Knowledge | Activities | Extensions | Standards

Children dressed as characters

Introduction

Name one of your favorite book characters. This was probably an easy task, with the challenge being choosing only one. Readers fall in love with book characters. Many readers still remember their first time reading Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, where Charlotte dies. Many fondly remember laughing along with George's antics in Curious George by H.A. Rey, or more recently, Gerald and Piggie in Mo Willems's Elephant and Piggie series. How many readers wanted to solve mysteries with Frank and Joe Hardy or longed to be a member of the Baby-sitters Club?

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Kid reading

Background Knowledge

Characters are an essential element of the fictional story. Through a book's characters, readers learn good versus evil and can see themselves or who they would like to be. Characters drive the stories—from their traits and actions to their feelings and how they change throughout the book. Readers connect to the characters, which is why so many book series are popular. For example, the Harry Potter series would not be popular without Harry, the boy who lived.

At a basic level, students need to be able to identify the characters in a fictional story. Who are the main characters or the most important characters? Who are the minor characters? How do they fit into the story? Once students can identify the characters, it is time to dig a little deeper and begin analyzing them. Excellent readers do this intuitively—they question motives, consider actions, and try to make sense of how a character changes and why. Most readers need to be led down this path, but once they are taught, it becomes second nature.

Elements of Character Analysis include:

  • Character Identification: telling who the characters are and how each relates to the others.
  • Physical Description: describing the characters if the author has provided a physical description.
  • Traits and Feelings: identifying and discussing a character's traits and feelings, using direct or indirect characterization.
  • Motives: discerning why a character does what he or she does.
  • Changes Throughout the Story: identifying and describing if and how a character changes throughout the story and why that change occurs.

We can analyze characters through

  • What the author says about them.
  • What the characters do and say (actions and reactions).
  • What other characters say and think about them.

Characterization can be direct, in which the author explicitly describes the character, or indirect, in which the reader must infer the character.

Character studies and explicit instruction in character analysis can make students more active, engaged readers, helping them become successful readers.

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Father reading to daughter

ACTIVITIES

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Drawing images

EXTENSIONS

  • Rewrite the Story
    • Encourage students to take a favorite story or a read-aloud shared with the class and rewrite it, changing the main character, as in The Three Little Wolves and the Big, Bad Pig. For example, in Hooway for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester, Wodney is a shy and quiet character. He is afraid of Camilla Capybara, and she is the antagonist in the story. How would the story be different if Wodney were strong and brave instead of timid? Students can tell this new story and share their writing with their classmates. Create digital stories using Book Creator (TeachersFirst review) or Elementari (TeachersFirst review).
  • Characters on Trial
    • Choose a character from a shared literacy experience, either a picture book or a novel, who is not considered a "good" character. Examine the character's traits, actions, and motivations, and then put those on trial. Students can work together in small groups to support a position about the character, either for or against. The groups can present their arguments to their classmates, who will serve as the jury. For example, in Restart by Gordon Korman, Chase falls off a roof and gets amnesia. Interactions with his peers show that he was not a nice person before his injury. Have students write and present their opinions on whether Chase should get a second chance and whether his classmates should forgive him. To go even further, students could defend their position if Chase has changed. This activity provides a close look at the text, requires students to search for evidence to support their opinions, challenges them to practice expressing their thoughts in writing, and encourages oral language development as students present, discuss, and defend their positions.
    • Consider the DRAAW+C approach. Learn more with this sample lesson from ThinkLaw.
    • Project Zero Thinking Routines (TeachersFirst review) shares many routines to help students expand their understanding by considering different perspectives. Use filters on the Project Zero site to find routines by grade level or by thinking dispositions, including exploring viewpoints and recognizing perspectives.
  • A Fish Out of Water
    • What would happen if we took a character from one book and put him or her in another? How would Harry Potter be if he were in Charlotte's Web? What would happen if Curious George went to play with Gerald and Piggie in Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books? Would the Very Hungry Caterpillar eat The Giving Tree? Facilitate a discussion about how a new, familiar character would impact a favorite story.
  • Fakebook and Social Media
    • Create a Facebook-style page for one of a story's many characters using Fakebook (TeachersFirst review). Other characters' pages can be set as "Friends," and posts can be added as the story progresses.
    • Dr. Ruth Okoye shares practical tips and suggestions for creating and using safe social media spaces in her blog post, "Let's Talk About: Social Media Practice Spaces."

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CORRELATION TO STANDARDS

  • AASL National School Library Standards
    • Inquire Shared Foundation, Think Domain - Learners display curiosity and initiative by:
      • 1. Formulating questions about a personal interest or a curricular topic.
      • 2. Recalling prior and background knowledge as context for new meaning.
    • Inquire Shared Foundation, Share Domain - Learners adapt, communicate, and exchange learning products with others in a cycle that includes:
      • 1. Interacting with content presented by others.
      • 2. Providing constructive feedback.
      • 3. Acting on feedback to improve.
      • 4. Sharing products with an authentic audience.
    • Include Shared Foundation, Share Domain - Learners exhibit empathy with and tolerance for diverse ideas by:
      • 1. Engaging in informed conversation and active debate.
      • 2. Contributing to discussions in which multiple viewpoints on a topic are expressed.
    • Include Shared Foundation, Grow Domain - Learners demonstrate empathy and equity in knowledge building within the global learning community by:
      • 1. Seeking interactions with a range of learners.
    • Engage Shared Foundation, Think Domain: Learners follow ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information by:
      • 1. Responsibly applying information, technology, and media to learning.
      • 2. Understanding the ethical use of information, technology, and media.
    • Engage Shared Foundation, Create Domain: Learners use valid information and reasoned conclusions to make ethical decisions in the creation of knowledge by:
      • 1. Ethically using and reproducing others' work.
      • 2. Acknowledging authorship and demonstrating respect for the intellectual property of others.
      • 3. Including elements in personal-knowledge products that allow others to credit content appropriately.
    • Engage Shared Foundation, Grow Domain: Learners engage with information to extend personal learning by:
      • 1. Personalizing their use of information and information technologies.
      • 2. Reflecting on the process of ethical generation of knowledge.
      • 3. Inspiring others to engage in safe, responsible, ethical, and legal information behaviors.
    • Collaborate Shared Foundation, Think Domain - Learners identify collaborative opportunities by:
      • 1. Demonstrating their desire to broaden and deepen understandings.
      • 2. Developing new understandings through engagement in a learning group.
      • 3. Deciding to solve problems informed by group interaction.
    • Collaborate Shared Foundation, Create Domain - Learners participate in personal, social, and intellectual networks by:
      • 1. Using a variety of communication tools and resources.
      • 2. Establishing connections with other learners to build on their own prior knowledge and create new knowledge.
    • Collaborate Shared Foundation, Grow Domain - Learners actively participate with others in learning situations by:
      • 2. Recognizing learning as a social responsibility.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Think Domain - Learners develop and satisfy personal curiosity by:
      • 1. Reading widely and deeply in multiple formats and writing and creating for a variety of purposes.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Create Domain - Learners construct new knowledge by:
      • 1. Problem solving through cycles of design, implementation, and reflection.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Share Domain - Learners engage with the learning community by:
      • 3. Collaboratively identifying innovative solutions to a challenge or problem.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Grow Domain - Learners develop through experience and reflection by:
      • 1. Iteratively responding to challenges.
      • 2. Recognizing capabilities and skills that can be developed, improved, and expanded.
      • 3. Open-mindedly accepting feedback for positive and constructive growth.
  • ISTE Standards for Students
    • Empowered Learner 1.1
      • 1.1.b. Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.
      • 1.1.c. Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
    • Digital Citizen 1.2
      • 1.2.c. Demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.
    • Knowledge Constructor 1.3
      • 1.3.d. Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories, and pursuing answers and solutions.
    • Innovative Designer 1.4
      • 1.4.d. Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance, and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.
    • Global Collaborator 1.7
      • 1.7.c. Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.

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