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Grade 8

TEKS ELA Standard: 8.7.B

analyze how characters’ motivations and behaviors influence events and resolution of the conflict

Characters’ Faults Can Also Be Strengths
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.
A Character’s Playlist
A Character’s Playlist
What playlist of songs best goes with a character’s change over time?
Analyze Characters Using Philosophy
Analyze Characters Using Philosophy
What is the Brick Pig’s philosophy? How would he apply it to the characters in Harry Potter?
Think Like A Philosopher
Think Like A Philosopher
What would Socrates have thought if he watched Frozen?
Virtue or Vice?
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.
Not Like The Others: Charlotte’s Web
Not Like The Others: Charlotte’s Web
Students will determine which of the characters is not like the others.
Content Imperatives: Convergence
Content Imperatives: Convergence
Add complexity by considering how multiple factors 🔄 Converge within one topic.
Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity
Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity
Your students will use Depth and Complexity to note how a character’s main trait changes across a story.
Literary Technique: Juxtaposition
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
Motivation and Moral Development
Can someone do the right thing, but for the wrong reason?
Better Stories Part 2: Types of Conflict
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
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.