Graphic Organizer
Character Map
Grades
K - 6
Printout Type
Graphic Organizer
About this printout
Who are the characters in this story? Students will examine what a character looks like, what a character does, and how other characters react to him or her.
Teaching with this printout
Help students progress from impressions or reactions about a character to a deeper understanding of the character's attributes.
- Choose a character from any book, short story, play, poem, or film and ask students to start describing the character.
- Project an overhead of the character map and ask students to recall some of their descriptions. In which category would they fall (appearance, actions, or reactions of others)?
- Write their responses in the boxes. Are they evenly distributed among each, or are most in one area? Ask students for suggestions to describe the character in all three areas.
- Have students write a paragraph discussing the character and their reactions to the character using the graphic organizer for reference.
Students can then use the printout independently to describe any other character
More ideas to try
- Students write a character sketch of a favorite or assigned character, based on the information gathered for the Character Map.
- Use the Character Map in creative writing. Students answer questions on the map to fully develop characters that they are inventing.
- Use two copies of Character Map to prepare students for a compare/contrast essay on two characters.
- When studying dynamic characters, have students complete the Character Map early in a text. Put their work aside and ask them to complete another Map after finishing. Then compare and contrast the two.