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Entire Librarylesson-planFourth GradeReading & WritingDiscovering Character Traits

Lesson Plan

Discovering Character Traits

This lesson will have your EL students exploring characters' dialogue and actions to determine their personality traits! Use it on its own or as a support lesson.
This lesson can be used as a pre-lesson for the It’s All in the Personality: Character Traits lesson plan.
Grade
Fourth Grade
Subject
Reading & Writing
English Learner
English Learner Prelessons
View aligned standards
RL.4.1
RL.4.3
SL.4.1
W.4.9
This lesson can be used as a pre-lesson for the It’s All in the Personality: Character Traits lesson plan.

Objectives

Academic

Students will be able to identify character traits using text evidence and write a small paragraph analysis about a character in a story.

Language

Students will be able to identify character traits based on the character's dialogue or actions (verbs) using a graphic organizer.

Introduction

(5 minutes)
Frayer ModelIdentifying VerbsDialogue and Actions to Show Character TraitsWrite Student-Facing Language Objectives ReferenceTeach Background Knowledge TemplateVocabulary Cards: Discovering Character TraitsGlossary: Discovering Character Traits
  • Ask students to think of a person they care about (a family member or friend), and spend a minute reflecting on what they like about this person's personality, or how they are.
  • Model your thinking aloud. For example, "I'm thinking of my sister, Sabrina. I love her because she is caring and always willing to help me when I need to solve a problem. She is very curious and creative, too. When we were kids, we would spend the weekends making up science experiments at home."
  • Place students into partnerships with another learner who speaks the same language, if possible, or with a partner who has a similar proficiency level. Have them share their thoughts on the person they are thinking of and their character traits.
  • Tell students that a person's personality refers to the traits or characteristics that define them. Characters, or the people or animals in stories, also have character traits. Explain that character traits are usually considered good (kind, strong, creative, helpful, honest, responsible) or bad (greedy, mean, selfish, dishonest).
  • On a piece of chart paper, write the title "Personality or Character Traits" and list a few examples. Then, ask students to share some traits of the person they discussed with their partner.