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|Reading Lesson: Characters |Grade Level: 5 |

|Lesson Summary: [Core: Read. Lit.5] Students explain how dialogue and description are used to show characters interacting and responding to |

|challenges and situations in stories. Students write about a familiar story character from the past responding to the present. Advanced |

|students examine how a speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic. Struggling students identify techniques to show character qualities by |

|discussing people they admire and then applying these techniques to characters in stories. |

|Lesson Objectives: |

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|The students will know… |

|the narrative techniques writers use to introduce and develop characters. |

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|The students will be able to… |

|identify narrative techniques that show how characters interact and respond to challenges. |

|write a characterization that uses narrative techniques to develop characters. |

|Learning Styles Targeted: |

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|Visual |

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|Auditory |

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|Kinesthetic/Tactile |

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|Pre-Assessment: |

|Ask students to name a favorite character from a book, play, or movie. Write the names of characters on the board. |

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|Engage students in a discussion about these characters by asking “What qualities do you like about this character?” and “How did you find out |

|about this character’s qualities?” |

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|Beginning with students’ suggestions, make a list on the board of ways writers introduce characters and show the qualities of characters. Be |

|sure to include the techniques of description, dialogue, how characters interact with each other, and how characters respond to challenges. |

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|Note students who have trouble identifying writer’s techniques and who are reluctant to contribute to the discussion. |

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|Materials Needed: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum Excerpt*; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Excerpt*; Paper and |

|pencils |

|Procedure: |

|Presentation |

|Tell students that they will be learning about the ways writers introduce characters and show the qualities of characters. |

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|Display or distribute copies of the excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (slide 1 of Characters Pre-assessment and Guided|

|Practice PowerPoint). Ask a volunteer the read the first paragraph. Ask students what they know about Aunt Em. Have students identify the |

|writer’s technique for introducing Aunt Em. (description, how Aunt Em responded to the challenge of a life of hard outdoor work, and her |

|interactions with Dorothy) |

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|Guided Practice |

|Ask a volunteer the read the second paragraph. Ask students what they know about Uncle Henry, Dorothy, and Toto. Have students identify the |

|writer’s technique for introducing these characters. (description of Uncle Henry, Dorothy through her interactions with Aunt Em and Toto) |

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|Display or distribute copies of the excerpt from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (slides 2-5 of Characters Pre-assessment and |

|Guided Practice PowerPoint). Read the selection to the class and ask students what they found out about Tom Sawyer. Have students identify the|

|writer’s technique for introducing the characters of Tom and his Aunt Polly. (dialogue, interaction between characters) Lead students in a |

|discussion of how the characters respond to challenges of looking for Tom, avoiding a whipping, and raising a young boy. Ask, “What do these |

|responses tell you about each character?” |

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|Independent Practice |

|Have each student select a character from a familiar fairy tale or other story from the past. Have students imagine this character dealing |

|with a situation in the present day. For example, you catch Goldie Locks raiding your refrigerator. |

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|Have students write a characterization using the writer techniques discussed earlier to show how their character responds to the challenge of |

|living in the present day. |

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|Allow time for student to present their characters to the class. |

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|Closing Activity |

|Ask students to choose their favorite character they heard about today. Have students write a sentence about one of the qualities of the |

|character and what technique was used to show that quality. For example: I liked Aunt Polly’s ability to maintain a sense of humor with the |

|tricks Tom played on her. Use this sentence as an exit pass from class. |

|Advanced Learner |

|Materials Needed: Poetry books appropriate for 5th graders such as Shel Siverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Jack Prelutsky’s New Kid on |

|the Block. Or access to web sites such as poems poems; paper and pencils |

|Procedure: |

|Tell students to select a poem from one of the books. Have students write a paragraph telling what the topic of the poem is and what they like|

|about the poem. Tell students to indentify the techniques the speaker in the poem uses to tell about the topic. (For example: describing the |

|topic, explaining something about the topic, the challenges the speaker has interacting with the topic.) |

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|Allow time for students to present their poem and analysis to the class. |

|Struggling Learner |

|Materials Needed: Stories from books and magazines |

|Procedure: |

|Ask students to name a person that they like or admire. Ask what they admire about this person. Have students tell how they know about the |

|person (from things that the person does, through conversations with the person, from someone else describing them). |

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|Have students take turns reading excerpts from stories. Lead students in a discussion about the techniques the writers used to introduce and |

|show the qualities of characters. |

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|Have students pick two character analyses to share with the class. |

*see supplemental resources

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