Character Portraits - Literature Involvement Strategies

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- Character Portraits -

The purpose of this strategy is to help students to understand character development in novels by examining the progression of the protagonist.

Process: Assign students in groups. Each group will look at a part or section of the book. It is preferable to divide the book into thirds. Individually, each member of the class will look at the assigned section and make and make lists of words or phrases that describe the character in the following ways:

describing the character’s appearance

describing the character’s personality

describing the character’s actions

(each student should have at least 5 descriptors in each category)

Composite lists will be made from each group. Groups may decide to use a graphic organizer such as mapping at this stage. Once the composite listing is done, each group will organize their list, putting synonyms and antonyms. These lists will be the basis for describing the character in each section of the book.

Each group will present its findings to the class. The evolution of the character will be examined.

Brown and Stephens. Teaching Young Adult Literature: Sharing the Connection. Wadsworth, 1995.

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This web page was last updated on: 21 June 2007