Grade 3
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Communication & Collaboration
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Reading: Comprehension
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Reading: Foundations
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Writing
Indiana ELA Standard: 3.RC.3
Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings), and explain how their actions contribute to the plot.
Too Much or Too Little of a Character Trait
The trait that makes a hero heroic is the same trait that makes a villain villainous. There’s just too much of it, or too little.
Analyze Character Change
A character can act one way at the beginning of a story and surprise you by the end. Students gather the clues and name the change.
Comparing Characters
Your young students will compare how two characters have changed in a story.
Identifying A Story’s Theme
Teach your young students to identify the moral or the theme of a story.
A Character’s Challenges and Changes
Your 1st and 2nd graders will analyze how a character responded to a challenge.
Hero or Not A Hero?
Students will determine what makes a hero a hero.
Characters’ Faults Can Also Be Strengths
Strength and weakness are often two sides of the same coin. Students will explore how a character’s flaw can be a benefit.
Comparing Characters’ Bedrooms
What item’s in a character’s bedroom would reflect their deepest desires? And what if they toured a similar character’s room?
A Character’s Playlist
What playlist of songs best goes with a character’s change over time?
Stories with the Same Problems and Solutions
Have you ever noticed that some stories have awfully similar problems? What if we looked for the most unusual way of solving a repeating problem?
Analyze Characters Using Philosophy
What is the Brick Pig’s philosophy? How would he apply it to the characters in Harry Potter?
Characters Dressed as Other Characters for Halloween
What if one character dressed up as another for Halloween? Would the Cat in the Hat pick Captain Jack Sparrow, because they’re both chaotic yet good-natured people? Would Elsa dress up as The Ice King since they are both lonely?
Virtue or Vice?
Aristotle noted that positive traits and negative traits are often the same thing, but just in different amounts. The right amount is a virtue, but too much or too little and it’s a vice.
Do Narrators Have Too Much Power?
Imagine being a character in a story. Are you worried that your story’s narrator may inaccurately describe you? What if they reveal something you wanted to be kept secret? Do narrators have too much power!?
The Personalities of Rocks
What would an igneous rock be like? Would it get along with a sedimentary rock? Could they handle the hot personality of a metamorphic rock?
Elements of The Fantasy Genre
Every fantasy story has patterns hiding underneath the magic. Once your students see the elements, they’ll spot them everywhere — and use them in their own writing.
Introduce Symbolism with Pixel Art
Create a pixelated icon that represents the essence of a character!
Literary Technique: Juxtaposition
Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!
Motivation and Moral Development
Can someone do the right thing, but for the wrong reason?
“Much Ado About Nothing” Summary
Shakespeare’s Much Ado summarized in just five minutes!
Twelfth Night Summary
An animated summary of Shakespeare’s utterly ridiculous “Twelfth Night.”
Better Stories Part 2: Types of Conflict
If your students’ stories are packed with endless ninja fights or arguments between frenemies, it’s time to expose them to a wider range of conflicts.
Better Stories Part 4: Character Archetypes
Are students’ characters a bit flat? Archetypes give them a strong foundation on which to build their own characters as well as a tool to analyze existing stories.