Reading Strategies



Focus Lesson Planning Sheet

|Focus Lesson Topic |Inferring About Characters Part 1 |

| |(Determining character traits) |

|Materials |Babushka’s Doll by Patricia Polacco |

| |Or some other book with easily identifiable character traits (as well as some character change |

| |for the follow up lesson) |

| |Short texts or picture books for students to use for practice |

|Connection |We have been talking about the reading strategy of inferring where readers combine what they know|

| |from their schema (background knowledge and experience) with clues from the text to come up with |

| |some ideas they think are probably true (refer to “What is inferring” anchor chart if possible). |

| |Today we are going to talk about one of the most important kinds of inferring that readers do: |

| |about the characters in a story. |

|Explicit Instruction |When authors write a book, they want to make their characters seem like real people. In real |

| |life, when you meet someone new, that person doesn’t walk over to you and say “Hi, I’m (name). I|

| |am a brave person. (or some other trait). Instead, in real life, as you get to know a new |

| |person, you start understanding what kind of person he or she is, what the personality of that |

| |person is like. Another way we can say this is what “traits” this person shows in his/her |

| |personality. Character traits are words to describe a person’s or character’s personality. When|

| |authors write about a character they introduce characters to you like real life. An author |

| |rarely writes “(name) is brave (or some other trait),” and tells you a character’s traits so |

| |directly. Instead, the author writes the story so that the reader can figure out that the |

| |character is brave (or other trait). The author gives a reader clues and the reader has to infer|

| |the character’s personality and traits. Readers infer to do this. Just like real life when we |

| |get to know a person through their actions, words and thoughts, authors tell us what their |

| |characters do and say and think and even what they look like and what other characters might say |

| |or think about them. These are all the clues we use to infer the character’s traits. |

| | |

| |Watch me think about a character in this book. Read the first few pages of book (Babushka’s Doll|

| |or other). Stop and think aloud about the clues given about Natasha or other main character. |

| |Focus on character’s actions, words, thoughts, etc. and what other characters say and think about|

| |that main character. Record your thoughts (and especially the evidence from the text) on a chart |

| |based on the Character Recording Sheet (attached) or some other graphic organizer. Finally name |

| |the trait you are focusing on. For example, I think Natasha is a selfish person. I think this |

| |because…… review clues recorded on chart which helped lead to this inference. |

|Guided Practice |Let’s try the next page together. Read another page (one with further clues about a character’s |

| |traits). Turn and talk to a partner about any clues you heard on this page about what the |

| |character does, says or thinks or what another character says, that helps you know that this |

| |character shows the trait of selfishness (or other). |

| |Record students’ thoughts on chart. |

| |** Note: in Babushka’s Doll Natasha, the main character, changes in the story. Character change|

| |and development is the next lesson. If you do not read the entire book at this lesson, but |

| |instead inform the students that you will get back to it in the future, you can then use the same|

| |book for the follow up lesson. The same is possible for any other text you are using in which a |

| |character’s traits are identifiable at the beginning and then have undergone a change by the end |

| |of the story. |

|Send Off [for Independent |From now on when you are reading pay attention to what the author tells you. Notice what the |

|Practice] |character does, says and thinks, and what other characters say and think. Think about these |

| |clues from the text so that you can infer a character’s traits. |

| |You can begin having students record their evidence about character traits on a recording sheet |

| |like the one modeled in this lesson if you so choose or you can give them another day of practice|

| |simply determining character traits and hold off on the follow up lesson (character change and |

| |development) for one or more days. |

|Group Share |Share with a partner what you found out about one of your main characters. Discuss his or her |

| |character traits and the clues from the text (what the character did, said and thought, or what |

| |other characters said or thought). If the students used the graphic organizer to record their |

| |thoughts they could share that. |

Inferring About Character Traits

Name ____________________________

Date _____________________________

Title _____________________________

Author ___________________________

Character _________________________________

Trait (s) __________________________________

|What the character does. |What the character says or thinks. |What other characters say and think about the |

| | |character. |

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