Use this activity to help students analyze a book’s characters and create a scrapbook to print and save.

 

This guide supports the Character Scrapbook for use with any book.

Also see the book-specific Because of Winn-Dixie Character Scrapbook.

 

 

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On one side of the scrapbook, students will create an image of the character. To do this, they can:

- Click the arrows to select a character's features, such as: hair, eyes, nose, mouth, and clothes.

- Drag the brush to choose a character's skin tone.

- For animal characters, choose from dogs, pigs, mice, a cricket, fish, a mole, horses, cats, a dragon, a monkey, a bull, a rabbit, a giraffe, an owl, a dinosaur, a turtle, or a gorilla.

- Click the eraser to start over.

Students may also print a blank version of the character scrapbook and draw in the character.

On the other side of the scrapbook, students will identify and list important character traits. They can use the arrows to click through different themes, selecting the list or lists that best suits their character:

- Ten things I know about __________.

- Ten words that describe __________.

- Ten details about __________'s appearance.

- Ten facts about __________'s personality.

- Ten challenges __________ faced.

- Ten accomplishments __________ achieved.

 

This activity will work with almost any fiction or nonfiction book, and can be used individually or as a whole class. However you choose to use this activity, it's a great way to engage students and help them form a deeper understanding of the book's characters.

OBJECTIVES

Students will:

1. Discuss and identify different types of character traits for characters in a fiction or nonfiction book

2. Generate lists of traits about a specific character in a book that the class or student is reading

3. Create a scrapbook featuring a personalized image and character traits of the character.

DIRECTIONS

Class Discussion: Character Descriptions

1. Write the following literary terms on the board: character, plot, setting, and theme. Define each of these terms. (Be sure they understand that a character is a person or an animal in literature.) Briefly describe the plot, setting, and major themes for the book your class is currently reading. Next, make a list of the main characters in the book you're reading. Tell students they will create online scrapbooks as a way to explore these characters. Through these scrapbooks, they'll explore how each of these characters contributes to the book. They'll discover how the characters reflect or influence the book's plot, setting, and themes.

2. Introduce the term character trait: a distinguishing quality of a person or character that can include personality, likes/dislikes, behavior, background, and physical appearance. Brainstorm different character traits of a real or fictional person, such as a person in history or a character from another book. Make a list of this character's traits on the board. Encourage students to think of many different aspects of people's character, such as the character's background, personality, and appearance. To help guide discussion, ask:

• What do we know about this character?
• What words describe this character?
• What are some details about this character's appearance?
• How would you describe this character's personality?
• What are some challenges this character has faced?
• What are some accomplishments this character has achieved?

(These themes are setting the stage for the types of character traits they'll be listing on different pages of their scrapbooks.)

3. Discuss how authors reveal character traits in two ways: directly and indirectly. An author reveals character traits directly by telling what the character looks or acts like. The author might describe how a character looks and acts, or share other details directly in the text. For example, in the first chapter of Charlotte's Web, the author tells us the age of Fern, the main character, directly in the text:

"I don't see why he needs an ax," continued Fern, who was only eight.

The second way to describe characters is indirectly through what they say, how they act, or what others say about them. In the first pages of Charlotte's Web, the author doesn't say that Fern has a strong sense of right and wrong. He shows us this by her actions and words when Fern pleads with her father not to kill the tiny runt:

Tears ran down her cheeks and she took hold of the ax and tried to pull it out of her father's hand...

"But it's unfair," cried Fern. "The pig couldn't help being born small, could it? If I had been very small at birth, would you have killed me?"

4. You may want to give examples of direct and indirect clues from the book your class is reading. Encourage students to look for direct and indirect clues about character traits as they're completing their scrapbooks.

Introduce the Character Scrapbook

1. Tell students that they'll be making a scrapbook of a character in the book your class is reading.

2. As a class, look at the online Character Scrapbook by gathering around a computer or projecting the screen with an LCD. Click through the arrows to show the class the different character themes they'll be asked to complete. You may want to use the character from the class discussion and fill in one example on each page. Explain that they should list as many character traits as they can on each page. Let them know it's okay if they can't think of ten traits for each page.

3. For younger students, take a few moments to show students how they will be able to create an image of their character for the scrapbook.

Students Make their Own Character Scrapbooks

1. Distribute copies of the printable scrapbook for students to complete as a draft. Have them complete each page with as many traits as they can think of. They should also draw a picture of their character. Encourage students to return to the text to find both direct and indirect descriptions.

2. Divide the class into pairs to do peer reviews of each other's scrapbook drafts. Have students review the comments and make revisions as needed.

3. Arrange for students to use the classroom computers or go to the computer lab to create their final draft scrapbook pages. Print out each student's page and create a class scrapbook.

EXTEND THE LEARNING

Character Discussion Questions

The following questions could help students deepen their understanding of their characters:

• How would this book be different without this character? How did this character affect the events in this book? How did this character affect the other characters?

• How did this character change from the beginning to the end of the book?

• How was this character shaped by the setting of the book?

• Did the character make a difficult decision in the book? What was it? Would you have made this same decision? Why or why not?

• Would you want to be friends with this character? Why or why not?

• Would you want to be like this character? Why or why not?

• Did this character make you laugh or feel another emotion? How?

• How does this character's name reflect his or her personality?

Ideas for Using this Activity

1. In younger grades (K-2), students could draw their own illustrations, but an adult may need to transcribe the character traits.

2. For students with less Web site experience, you may need to model how to use the online scrapbook. For example, you could show students how to select different characteristics for their images, and fill in the different character pages. For older students, you could simply point out how to click and hold down the "help" button if they're not sure how the scrapbook works.

3. Have students work individually to complete this activity for a book they're reading on their own. You could then pair students reading the same book or books of similar genres or time periods and have students compare their character scrapbooks.

4. Have students work in small groups, assigning each person in the group to a different character in a book the class is reading. Then have students compile their scrapbooks and share them with another group. Find similarities and differences between character scrapbooks for the same characters.

5. Have students work in pairs to write and perform a mock interview between a talk show host and a character from the book. Have partners use their character scrapbook to develop their questions and answers.

6. Have students imagine their characters in a new situation, like being a new kid on the first day of school, receiving an award, or at a birthday party. Ask them to imagine what their character would do in that situation based on the traits they listed in their character scrapbooks. How might that character feel? Then have students create a simple cartoon or story to share what the character might do or feel in that situation.

7. Have students work in pairs or small groups to make a character web to show how one character in a book influenced the other characters. The character's name should be in the center of the web, with other character names in boxes branching off the center. In each box, write how a sentence or phrase describing the center character's influence. Students could also identify whether the influence was positive, negative, or neutral by drawing a +, -, or 0 sign on the line connecting the characters' names.