Students will create a team of characters with various faults. Those faults will help them get out of a challenging situation.
Students list characters and people from history who used their faults as a strength.
They pick three and explain why their faults would work so well together.
They create a situation where each of the faults helps the team to survive a challenge.
Finally, they expand their idea into a larger work.
Students will compare and contrast two characters with similar desires by filling their rooms with items that reflect those desires.
Students note a character's main desire and describe items in their room that reflect that desire.
Then, they pick another character with a similar desire. They'll describe the items that character's room, including one that will go against Character A.
Character A tours Character B's room. They note how some items reflect a shared goal. But then they note a difference.
Character A reflects on their experience by writing a diary entry about how their desire has (or hasn't) changed.
Students create a list of songs that correspond to a character's change.
First students note three moments where a character showed how they were changing in their story.
Then they pick a song for each of those three moments and explain why the song connects.
They pick a second character with a similar change and that character creates their playlist.
Now students prepare for a conversation between the two characters where they discuss their two playlists.
Students will determine the philosophy of one character and apply it to another, unrelated character.
First, students will identify a character's philosophy - or the most important thing that character values.
Then, they'll apply that philosophy to another character. The Brick Pig might apply his philosophy to Hermione Granger, for example.
Based on below-the-surface similarities, students decide which characters might dress up like others for Halloween and explain why.
Students brainstorm characters who have a parallel to another character and explain why they are similar.
Students draw one character dressed up as another and explain why.
Students will think of words to describe the right amount, too much, and too little of a trait. Then they think of characters or real people who had traits in these different quantities.
After seeing "giving" modeled, students think of characters who desired too much, too little, or just the right amount of power.
I share my examples of power. Then students think of their own trait, write down words to describe too much, too little, and just right. Finally, students think of examples of characters for each category.
Lastly, students create an "interview" in which a character with a vice explains how their life changed once they turned that vice into a virtue.
Students will analyze four characters from Charlotte's Web, looking for at least one reason why each one is not like the others.
To practice the common writing advice of "show, not tell," students will write two examples of a scene: one showing a character's trait, and one just telling. They'll put a famous character into a mundane situation and develop their scene.
Students pick a well-known character and put them into an everyday situation. They identify the character's main trait and come up with an event that will highlight that trait. They brainstorm ten specific ways that the character will show that trait (words they'll say, noises they'll make, actions they'll take, how they'll look, etc).
Finally, they write up the situation - using their ten ideas to show the character's main trait. They'll also write a non-example in which they only tell the trait. No showing allowed!
Students will analyze how a character changes across a story using the prompts of depth and complexity.
Students will determine a character's main characteristic and then develop a pixelated symbol that represents that trait.
First students identify the main trait of a character from a story and sketch a symbol for that character.
Next, they use grid paper to draw a pixelated version of that symbol.
Finally, students can use a spreadsheet tool like Excel to create a digital version of their their pixelated symbol.
Students connect characters with multiple intelligences.
Students will analyze pairs of opposite characters who have to work together.
Students will look at six different levels of motivation behind a person's actions.
First, we introduce the idea that one positive action can have different motivations - and those motivations can be positive or negative.
Then, students learn about Levels 1 and 2 and note characters and historic figures who match up with those levels.
Next, students learn about Levels 3 and 4 and note characters and historic figures who match up with those levels.
In this part, students learn about Level 5 and look for characters and historic figures who fit this level.
Finally, they'll learn about Level 6 and note how characters can match up with different levels depending on which point in a story we're looking at.
Students will use four repeating types of characters as the starting point for their own interesting characters.