Mapping Characters Across Book Series
- Preview |
- Standards |
- Resources & Preparation |
- Instructional Plan |
- Related Resources |
- Comments
Overview
In this lesson, students are introduced to a character from a literature series. The class critically looks at the character and his or her development over the course of the story. Students read critically to learn about the character's growth, challenges, and successes. In a guided activity, using an online interactive, students assist in mapping out the character throughout the story. Finally, on their own, students read another book from the same literature series and create their own graphic map, including symbols and descriptions of the character's life.
Featured Resources
Series Book List: This printable sheet features a list of individual titles in a variety of book series.
What Is Character?: This sheet offers students a definition of and information about the literary term character.
Graphic Map: Using the Graphic Map online tool, students can chart events in the life of a literary character.
From Theory to Practice
Lucy McCormick Calkins notes that: "Reading the second or third book in a series is rather like rereading a familiar book, and this means that reading within a series can often give the reader extra support." Series books allow students to focus their attention on the ways that authors work. Because of the familiarity of the setting, characters, and plot in serial books, the reader is released from "figuring out" each book anew. Instead, as students read more and more titles in a series, they can consider how the author works-what does the author change? how does the author keep readers coming back?
Series books have another advantage-they generate excitement in readers. In their article "Our Repressed Reading Addictions," Reid and Cline ask: "how do readers become addicted to reading? For many, series books provide the incentive to devour text."
This lesson capitalizes on these benefits of series books by engaging readers in reading serial books with particular attention to the ways that the author builds characters.
Further Reading
Common Core Standards
This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.
State Standards
This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.
NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts
- 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
- 2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
- 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
- 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
- 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
- 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
Materials and Technology
Printouts
Preparation
- The teacher should select a book series to use as a teaching tool (see Series Booklist).
- If desired, make overhead transparencies of Author’s Development of Character list and the Journal Questions.
- Make copies of What is Character? and Creating a Graphic Map handouts.
- Test the interactive Graphic Map on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.
Student Objectives
Students will
- discuss characters and character development.
- critically read several books in a series.
- create a Graphic Map of a character through a book series.
Session One
- To begin this lesson, ask the students to think about a character in a book that they really enjoy. Ask students to share the reasons that they like the character and the things that that author did to make the character likable.
- In turn, ask students if they have encountered a character that they did not like and to talk about what reasons they dislike these characters.
- Share the following information with the students:
When authors create characters, they consider the character’s
- Physical characteristics
- Interaction with other characters
- Interaction with the world around him/her
- Thoughts and feelings
- Behavioral Traits
- Speech and speech habits
- Past, present and future
- Physical characteristics
- Ask students to name examples for each of these characteristics for the characters they have identified.
- Together, share the handout What is Character? and discuss the idea of who a character is further, connecting to the examples and characters students have already identified.
- Again, ask the students to think about a favorite character, but this time, ask them to choose a character who appears in a series of books. Ask students to share what they notice about the character from one book to another—Is there a big difference? What makes the difference? Does the character stay the same? Why or why not?
- Explain that for this project, students will map out the life of a character through a series of books. See the related list of book series.
Session Two: Reading the First Book in a Series
- Through teacher read aloud, or literature groups, the students should critically read book one of a book series.
- Ask students to pay special attention to one or more of the characters as they study the book.
- To structure students’ consideration of the character, ask them to take notes on the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the character at your stopping points. Notes can be taken in writer’s notebooks individually or the full class or small groups can track notes on chart paper after each reading session.
- If desired, share specific questions to guide students’ notetaking:
- What was the most important thing that the character did in this section?
- How would you describe the character’s feelings in this section?
- Did anything about the character change in this section? If so, what?
- Choose a sentence or two from the section that is significant for this character. Why is it important?
- What was the most important thing that the character did in this section?
Session Three
- When the first book in the series is completed and a character has been studied, conduct a class discussion about one of the characters.
- Ask guiding questions about the character’s development and growth, successes and failures, life events, and so forth, focusing on the full course of the story. Students can refer to the notes that they have taken section-by-section for details as needed.
- As students make observations, take notes on the board or on chart paper.
- If desired, fill in an online character map, which asks guiding questions about a character.
- If the students need additional support as they discuss the character development, do a think-aloud, using passages from the book, to connect the details in the story to the conclusions that can be drawn about the character.
- After the class discussion, distribute the Creating a Graphic Map for a Character directions and demonstrate the interactive Graphic Map, using one of the chosen characters. Incorporate students’ comments and insights. Whenever possible, also model looking back into the book or writer’s notebook for clarification or further information.
Session Four: Reading the Second Book in a Series
- Assign the students additional books in the series to study, through teacher read aloud, or literature groups. If desired, a new book series can be started here to provide more options, and the students could create two or more graphic maps from this series.
- Ask students to pay special attention to the same characters they followed as they read the first book in the series.
- Again, ask students to take notes on the character in writer’s notebooks or on chart paper after each reading session.
- If desired, share specific questions to guide students’ notetaking:
- What was the most important thing that the character did in this section?
- How would you describe the character’s feelings in this section?
- Did anything about the character change in this section? If so, what?
- Choose a sentence or two from the section that is significant for this character. Why is it important?
- What was the most important thing that the character did in this section?
Session Five
- When the students have completed the next book in the series, ask them to complete a Graphic Map on their own, outlining the events in the life of the character whom they followed over the course of the series.
- To get students started, brainstorm a list of events in the characters’s lives that can be mapped using the online tool. Items to include might be birth, marriage, death, schooling, travel, careers, successes, failures, etc.
- Remind students to use the Directions for Graphic Map if they need help while they are working.
- This activity can be repeated for all of the books in a series, if desired.
- Once the Graphic Map is completed for the second book in the series, ask students to compare the map of events from the first book in the series to this second map and to draw conclusion about how the character grows and changes over the course of the series—or alternatively, how the character stays the same.
- Return to the notes from the first session on authors and character development, using the following list:
When authors create characters, they consider the character’s
- Physical characteristics
- Interaction with other characters
- Interaction with the world around him/her
- Thoughts and feelings
- Behavioral traits
- Speech and speech habits
- Past, present and future
- Physical characteristics
- Ask students to use their notes and maps to think about how the author of the series created the character over the course of the series. To structure the discussion, ask students to suggest which of the items on the list were important for this character’s development and which remained unchanged. For instance, does the character’s physical characteristics change? What do the changes tell the reader about the overall development of the character?
- Conclude the session by asking students to write an informal journal entry on what they’ve noticed about how writers develop characters over the course of a series. Urge them to include specific details from their notes or maps that explain their observations. If desired, ask students to think about how their knowledge will guide them as they read additional books in the series. In other words, based on what they have learned about the way that the author develops characters, ask students to think about the things that they will look for as they read other books in the series and how they think that the character may change or develop as the series continues.
Extensions
- While this lesson focused on a character, this activity can also be done looking at a setting over the course of a story or series.
- Have students use the Profile Publisher either in place of or in addition to the Graphic Map as a means of representing the character in that particular book in the series.
Student Assessment / Reflections
In addition to observing students as they read and discuss the development of the characters in the series, collect the artifacts from the lesson (Graphic Map printouts, reading notes in journals, and so forth) to examine students’ understanding of character and character development.
As you explore students’ notes, look for specific details that indicate engagement with the reading. Notes should focus on the particular character and how that character interacts with others over the course of the series. Stronger readers will look more deeply and analytically at the character to hypothesize about motivations and implications for actions and thoughts while reading, and they will draw conclusions about how the character’s actions and changes affect the overall story and its themes. Pay attention to strong details and critical thinking rather than accuracy of predictions as you explore the notes—guessing the wrong outcome of events is an acceptable response as long as the hypothesis is tied to details in the story that support the conclusion.
Review Graphic Map printouts and students’ final journal entry for accuracy to the detail of the series and an understanding of the ways that the series’ author develops characters. Students should be able to identify which characteristics are more important to the author and should be able to identify specific techniques to watch for as they read additional books in the series. Stronger readers will make clear connections between the details about character from the books that they have read and the predictions that they make for future books in the series.
Add new comment