LightSail Lesson Character Traits
OVERVIEW
Category
Literary Analysis
Lesson Outcomes/Objectives
SWBAT identify internal character traits using evidence from the text as support.
Lesson Summary
Teacher will model using evidence from the text to identify external character traits.
Materials
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iPads
Ability to project your iPad (through an adapter for your projector or a program like Reflector)
Character Traits Sentence Frames
Exploring Character Traits worksheet
Preplanning
Identify a portion of text to read aloud and prewrite an annotation using the sentence frames below.
Thinking Task for Independent Reading
What type of person is the main character? Use text evidence to support your thinking about internal traits.
LESSON
Launch (5 minutes)
Have students tap Think on any word in their texts and answer the following prompt:
I’m the kind of person who is _______. For example, I _______.
Have students share aloud what they have written, and highlight the types of descriptions and the level of
evidence.
Class Discussion (10 minutes)
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As a class, brainstorm a list of internal character traits, such as intelligent, courageous, sensitive, anxious,
spontaneous, etc. When students use basic words like “happy”, encourage them to look for a more advanced
word.
Direct Instruction (10 minutes)
Characters in books or stories are just like people we might meet in real life. From their actions, feelings, and
words, we can piece together character traits.
Authors always provide readers with details about characters, but they do so in different ways. Sometimes they
come right out and tell you what a character is like. We call those explicit or “right there” details. At times,
authors are trickier. They don’t come right out and tell you what a character is like. Instead, they give you clues.
We call those clues implicit details. When we are being our best reading selves, we notice those clues, and we
can use them to build an idea of what that character might be like. Once we have an idea, we can record it as
annotation on LightSail.
Note to the Teacher: Identify a short section of text to be read aloud and projected to the class. This section of
text should provide evidence about a character. Model how to use evidence to identify an internal character
trait, and record it as an annotation, using one of the sentence frames from the attached document.
Guided Practice (15 minutes)
Read aloud from another section of the same text used above.
Have students turn and talk to their neighbors, choosing at least one adjective that describes the character,
using the sentence frames from the anchor chart.
When students share out, discuss how students may have described the character differently and/or may have
used different evidence to support a conclusion.
Activity (15 Minutes)
In their books, have students practice today’s Thinking Task (What type of person is the main character? Use
text evidence to support your thinking about internal traits.). Then have them share out and discuss the quality
of their evidence. Students will practice this skill again during the second independent reading block.
Have students practice further by having them complete the attached worksheet. If a printer is not available,
read the text aloud and then give students the opportunity to discuss in groups before sharing out.
After the worksheet (or in place of it), students can practice today’s Thinking Task (What type of person is the
main character? Use text evidence to support your thinking about internal traits.) and then share out with
peers.
Close (5 minutes)
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When you are reading, be sure to pay close attention to the clues that the author leaves for you! When we
notice the clues, we can learn more about the characters by identifying the characteristics that make them who
they are. When you have an idea, record it as an annotation in LightSail!
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Character Traits Sentence Frames
I think that (character’s name) is (adjective) because in the text is says that (evidence from the text).
When the author says (evidence from the text) it makes me think that (character’s name) is (adjective).
When (character’s name) said/did (evidence from the text) it made me think that he/she was (adjective)
because (explanation).
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Activity: Exploring Character Traits
Directions: Read the following excerpts carefully and answer the questions. You may want to use these
sentence frames:
I think that (character) is… because in the text is says that…
When (character) said… it made me think that he/she was… because…
Text #1
Ordinary
From Wonder by R.J Palacio
I know I’m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my
bike. I play ball. I have an Xbox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I
know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids
don’t get stared at wherever they go.
If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one
ever noticed at all. I would wish that I could walk down the street without people seeing me and then doing
that look-away thing. Here’s what I think: the only reason I’m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.
But I’m kind of used to how I look by now. I know how to pretend I don’t see the faces people make.
We’ve all gotten pretty good at that sort of thing: me, Mom and Dad, Via. Actually, I take that back: Via’s not so
good at it. She can get really annoyed when people do something rude. Like, for instance, one time in the
playground some older kids made some noises. I don’t even know what the noises were exactly because I
didn’t hear them myself, but Via heard and she just started yelling at the kids. That’s the way she is. I’m not that
way.
Via doesn’t see me as ordinary. She says she does, but if I were ordinary, she wouldn’t feel like she
needs to protect me as much. And Mom and Dad don’t see me as ordinary either. They see me as
extraordinary. I think the only person in the world who realizes how ordinary I am is me.
My name is August, by the way. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s
probably worse.
1. What internal character traits can you identify in August?
2. Pick one of the internal character traits you listed above. Draw a visual representation of that trait below or
on a blank sheet of paper.
3. What evidence demonstrates that August has this character trait?
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Text #2
From Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Even though it was nighttime there was a whole different, scarier kind of dark in the shed. A colder
dark with more grays and more shadows. An old smell leaked out and it seemed like it was the perfect smell
that all this gray would have.
Mr. Amos nudged me and I took a baby step into the shed. He could kiss my wrist if he thought I was
going to beg him and say things like “I’ll do anything you folks ask me if you don’t lock me up in here all alone.
“ I squeezed my tongue between my teeth to hold it still ‘cause I know a lot of times your brain might want to
be brave but your mouth might let some real chick-sounding stuff fall out of it.
I stood a little bit inside and looked around. Right under the window was a pile of stacked wood. There
were a bunch of dusty spiderwebs in front of the little window and someone had pasted old yellow
newspapers over the class so the kids who got locked in here couldn’t peek out.
Mr. Amos handed me the blanket and pillow and gave me another nudge. I took two more baby steps
in.
I looked down at the floor. If I was like a normal kid I would’ve busted out crying, but I just stood there
breathing hard. It was a good thing I’d bit my tongue, because I came real close to saying those stupid
begging words to Mr. Amos. Right in the middle of the floor there was a big black stain in the dirt!
They really were going to make me sleep in a shed with a patch of blood from the kid who had
disappeared out of here a couple of weeks a go!
1. What internal character traits can you identify in the narrator?
2. Pick one of the internal character traits you listed above. Draw a visual representation of that trait below or
on a blank sheet of paper.
3. What evidence demonstrates that the narrator has this character trait?
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Text #3
From Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
I always try to get Mr. Myles out for a walk and a taste of fresh air. I don’t know about his other nurses. I
expect that it’s because I’m British. Back in England you’d see mothers pushing infants in prams through winter
gales. I expect as well it was the sight of my own father, vegetating in his chair by the fire. We mustn’t stop
living before out time. So I’m forever telling Mr. Myles.
It was a midsummer morning and I was pushing his wheelchair up Gibb Street, A new route for us. The
view, I‘ll admit, is less than uplifting. Half the storefronts seem to be empty. Mr. Myles must remember a very
different scene. His landlady says he’s lived here many years. As he lost his speech with his second stroke, he
can’t tell me himself. He’s a mystery. Lately his interest in the world had declined. I’d stop before a store
window to let him see himself- he has the dignified head of an African chief- only to find that he’d fallen asleep.
I realized that his time might be near. And then, that morning, rolling along the sidewalk, suddenly his arm
came up.
He wanted to stop. I obliged him at once. To our left was a lot in which a few bold pioneers had
planted garden. We remained several minutes, watching two Asian women hoeing then continued on.
Immediately, back up went his arm. I came around and looked at him. He twisted and pointed toward the
garden. I turned the wheelchair and headed back. I could see his nostrils taking in the smell of the soil. We
reached the lot. His arm commanded me to enter. Over the narrow, bumpy path we went, his nose and eyes
working. Some remembered scent was pulling him. He was a salmon traveling upstream through his past. That
first day we simply watched the others. We might have been strolling through a miniature city. Some plots
sported brick pathways and flower borders, while others looked haphazard. One had a gate that was in fact a
car door. Within bean climbed a propped-up set of bedsprings. A hummingbird feeder, a barbecue grill, a
gardening hat hanging from a nail- there were such domestic touches. I was entranced. I determined that Mr.
Myles should do more than simply which, wheelchair or no.
I worked on the problem in my head. Tow days later, driving to his apartment, I stopped at the garden
and unloaded a large plastic trash barrel and a shovel. I wheeled him up an hour later, used my pocketknife to
cut holes in the bottom of the barrel for drainage, and built up a fine sweat shoveling in dirt. I’d brought with
me a dozen seed packets. Mr. Myles chose the flowers decisively, ignoring the vegetables. Was he recalling his
mother’s flower garden? His history was unknowable. I pushed him as close to the barrel as I could. Thirty
minutes later he’d planted hollyhocks, poppies, and snapdragons. Riding home afterward, he smelled the dirt
on his fingers with satisfaction.
That small circle of earth became a second home to both of us. Gardening boring? Never! It has
suspense, tragedy, startling developments- a soap opera growing out of the ground. I’d forgotten that tremolo
of expectation produced by a tiny forest of sprouts. What a marvelous sight it was to behold Mr. Myles’
furrowed black face inspecting his smooth-skinned young, just arrived in the world he’d shortly leave. His eyes
gained back some of their life. He weeded and watered with great concentration. A fact bobbed up from my
memory, that the ancient Egyptians prescribed walking through a garden as a cure for the mad. It was a mindaltering drug we took daily.
We were rather alone there, off to one side. Our most common visitors were the cats. They were
attracted by the aroma of fish, the work of a child who’d copied the Pilgrims of old and buried sardines with
her seeds. Then our solitary status ended, as a result of a downpour. When the rain came that day, the other
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gardeners all ran in the same direction, as if in a fire drill. We followed and found them sheltered beneath a
shoe store’s overhang two doors down, apparently their customary refuge. The small dry space forced us
together. I fifteen minutes we’d met them all and soon knew the whole band of regulars.
Most were old. Many grew plants from their native lands- huge Chinese melons, ginger, cilantro, a
green the Jamaican call calaloo, and many more. Pantomime was often required to get over language barriers.
Yet we were all subject to the same weather and pests, the same neighborhood, and the same parental
emotions toward our plants. If we happened to miss two or three days, people stopped by on our return to ask
about Mr. Myles’ health. We, like our seeds, were now planted in the garden.
I told all this to out-of –town guests, then took them up Terminal Tower. We got off at the observation
deck on the forty-second floor to find that the garden, which loomed so large to its tenders, was hopelessly
hidden from view by buildings. I looked at all the tourists, who’d no notion it existed, who thought they were
seeing all of Cleveland, and restrained myself form point and shouting out, ” The Gibb Street garden is there!”
1. What internal character traits can you identify in Mr. Myles?
2. Pick one of the internal character traits you listed above. Draw a visual representation of that trait below or
on a blank sheet of paper.
3. What evidence demonstrates that Mr. Myles has this character trait?
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