Interactive Character Traits Poster
This Really Good Stuff® product includes:
• Interactive Character Traits Poster, Write Again®
wipe-off laminate
• This Really Good Stuff® Activity Guide
Congratulations on your purchase of this Really Good
Stuff® Interactive Character Traits Poster—an
interactive poster that helps students to identify and
compare external and internal character traits using a
memorable shell analogy.
Meeting Common Core State Standards
This Really Good Stuff® Interactive Character Traits
Poster is aligned with the following Common Core State
Standards for English Language Arts:
Key Ideas and Details
RL.3.3Describe characters in a story (for example, their traits,
motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions
contribute to the sequence of events.
RL.4.3Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or
drama, drawing on specific details in the text (for example, a
character’s thoughts, words, or actions).
Displaying and Organizing the Interactive Character
Traits Poster
Before displaying the Interactive Character Traits
Poster, make copies of this Really Good Stuff®
Activity Guide, and file the pages for future use.
Or, download another copy of it from our Web site
at www.reallygoodstuff.com. Always use a dry erase
marker on the Poster in order to preserve its Write
Again® wipe-off laminate surface. Hang the Poster
where students will be able to see it easily. Introducing the Interactive Character Traits Poster
Choose a character, either from a favorite mentor text or
the class read-aloud, that is familiar to students. As a
class, brainstorm as many words as possible that describe
the character, while you write the words on individual
sticky notes and place them in random order next to the
Interactive Character Traits Poster. (At this point, it
is not necessary to remind students of the differences
between internal and external character traits. You will
make that distinction after the students have had a
chance to generate as many adjectives as possible.)
Remind students that the words they have generated
are called traits and that authors reveal both external
traits and internal traits to help readers better
understand a character. Use the Poster to demonstrate
how some traits describe what a character looks like or
acts like physically. Review that these types of traits
are called external traits, and move a few sticky notes
with examples from the students’ list of traits onto
the outside shell of the Poster. Read the description
for external traits printed on the Poster. Repeat this
process for internal traits, and read the description of
internal traits on the Poster.
Continue to ask students to categorize the remaining
words into either external or internal traits until you
are sure the majority of the students understand the
difference between the two.
Know Your Character Inside and Out!
Copy and distribute the Know Your Character Inside and
Out! Reproducible. Direct students to use the Interactive
Character Traits Poster as a guide, while they complete
the reproducible about a character in a book that they
are reading.
Have each student share his or her character’s external
and internal traits, and then lead a discussion about
similarities and differences among characters students
chose to examine.
Variation: Distribute another copy of the Know Your
Character Inside and Out! Reproducible. This time,
instruct students to complete the reproducible for a
minor character in the same text and to compare the
two sets of traits on their two reproducibles.
Inferring Character Traits
Readers make inferences from the character traits
an author reveals in his or her story. In this activity,
encourage students to use specific parts of a text
to infer internal character traits: Using a read-aloud
story, highlight excerpts from the text that reveal the
main character’s internal traits. For example, choose
specific dialogue the character uses or an action that
clearly demonstrates one of his or her internal traits.
On a T-chart, label the columns Text and Trait, write
the dialogue or action under the Text column, and ask
students to identify what trait they can infer about the
character through this dialogue or action. Record the
inference under the Trait column. Keep this chart posted
and record additional inferences students make as you
continue to read aloud to the class.
All activity guides can be found online.
Helping Teachers Make A
Difference®
© 2013 Really Good Stuff 1-800-366-1920 www.reallygoodstuff.com Made in USA #161597
®
Know Your Character Inside and Out! Reproducible
Helping Teachers Make A Difference®
© 2013 Really Good Stuff® 1-800-366-1920 www.reallygoodstuff.com Made in USA #161597