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This assessment offers five formative assessment options to choose from that will best meet your needs for gaining understanding of your students' mastery of the standards as they are being taught.

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In this activity students read two  short articles, in which the lead characters have several traits that are relatable to the fourth grade class. Utilizing the memory match game provides a visual component to the story and allows the students to re-think about the key points without re-reading.

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The first part of this activity involves the reading of two articles from Time for Kids. These articles are about two kids who are doing great things in the world. Both of these kids show a lot of character traits that my students can identify and relate to.

(Articles can be found here and here)

A note here: Both of these articles are short, so I copied them on one piece of paper to save trees.

I pass out the articles and have the students read them making notes to themselves in the margins of possible character traits and corresponding evidence. After they read it through a few times, I explain the next activity to them. I purposely don't want to discuss the articles or the character traits so that I don't influence the students' thinking or ruin the card game they're about to play. I just want them to have some background knowledge of the articles and the text evidence they are going to see.

I pass out the game cards to each group. The rules of the game are simple- like Concentration or any Memory game they've played before. They separate the cards into traits and evidence and, in two groups, lay them out flat. On each turn, a student draws a trait and an evidence card and reads them to the group. They then have to decide if that piece of evidence matches that trait and then the group has to agree. If it is a match, the player gets to keep the card and goes again. If it's not a match, the player replaces the cards and the next person goes. Play continues until all cards have been collected.

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Makin' Matches: Character Trait and Evidence Memory Game

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The first part of this activity involves the reading of two articles from Time for Kids. These articles are about two kids who are doing great things in the world. Both of these kids show a lot of character traits that my students can identify and relate to.

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Tell Me More: Characters, Settings, and Events

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Tell Me More: Characters, Settings, and Events

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In this lesson students will be able to select and describe characters, setting, and events in detail, using specific examples.

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In this interactive lesson, your students will learn to identify four elements of a fictional story, characters, setting, problem, and solution.

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In this lesson, students will compare and contrast the elements in two stories with similar themes.

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In this activity students will use a graphic organizer that they fill out based on the characters in the reading. This visual will be a guide to help them pull key components of the story and characters out.

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Reading Graphic Organizers: Reading Literature Grades 3-5 | Reading graphic organizers, 4th grade reading, Reading literature

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Oct 9, 2013 - This Pin was discovered by Sharon Lepore. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest

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This article provides 7 ways to break down the literacy standard RL 4.3 for students with special needs. By using one or many of the suggested methods you can modify your assignment and help your students learn and grow without frustration.

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7 Ways to Adapt the Common Core for Students with Special Needs | Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D.

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The establishment of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for students nationwide represents a particularly robust challenge for teachers of students with special needs. On the one hand, advocates for students with disabilities have made it clear that they want these students to be held to the same high level of achievement as typically developing students.

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This interactive matching game breaks down the key information for the students, provides visual ques, and assists them in being able to learn about distinguishing key character traits.

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20 task cards with scenes that show a character's personality trait. I used body language clues along with dialogue to help students determine the character's traits. All writing is original and written by me!

Some of the traits included are: friendly, talented, stubborn, clumsy, dishonest, anxious, confident, kind, brave, selfish, and more!!

Along with the task cards, you will also receive:

Printable student answer sheet

Answer key for the teacher or for student self-grading

Suggestions for use

A mini-Scoot activity which can also be used as an exit ticket/quick assessment.

Prints in color OR choose the black and white version included

Task cards print 4 per page
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You can find me on social media as There's NO Crying in Teaching!

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Matching Characters to Personality Task Cards RL 4.3

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20 task cards with scenes that show a character's personality trait. I used body language clues along with dialogue to help students determine the character's traits. All writing is original and written by me! Some of the traits included are: friendly, talented, stubborn, clumsy, dishonest, anxi...

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As class developing a character traits anchor chart together after the reading will help students who are struggling pull out the key points from the text. The teacher can have the students participate by having them locate the page that each trait is on and reading a portion of it. The modeling of how to find the details and what to look for in the text along with the visual chart will re-enforce the lesson.

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I love teaching character analysis! I love looking closely at an interesting character and trying to uncover what makes them tick. And in my experience, kids love this process, too. Unfortunately, for many kiddos, understanding character traits is a bit tricky. Here are three big pitfalls and what to do about them!

Read alouds for character traits.

1. VOCABULARY!

One of the biggest issues is simply vocabulary. Most kids are familiar with the basic emotions - sad, happy, mad. But words that describe traits, such as compassionate, driven, and selfish, are often totally new or only partially understood. Build vocabulary by including LOTS of read alouds with rich discussions about the characters. List those traits on anchor charts or in notebooks, illustrate different traits, and use that vocabulary in the day-to-day of the classroom as much as possible! Any book with a strong character can be used for teaching traits but here are some of my favorite books/authors for character study. (You can read more about these books on Amazon by clicking the links at the bottom of the post.)

2. OUTSIDE VS INSIDE

Another aspect that trips ups kids is understanding the difference between what we see on the outside and what the character is like on the inside. Ask younger students to describe a character and you'll often get a description of their physical features. Help kids understand the difference between physical traits and personality traits.

Physical traits can be seen with our eyes. Personality traits are trickier. We have to use what we know about the character - their actions, choices, words, thoughts, feelings and more. We must use all of those clues to draw conclusions about the personality of the character. An anchor chart, a few class discussions, and some notes in a journal is all you need to clear up this misconception.

Character Traits Anchor Chart: Inside Vs. Outside the Character

3. EMOTIONS VS TRAITS

Another area of confusion is the difference between emotions and character traits. Many students want to describe a character as "angry" because the character was angry at one point in the story. Or they'll say a character is "sad" because she cried. The emotion might be correct for the situation, but when we're talking character traits, kids need to think bigger picture.

Ask students to think of a time they were angry about something and share with a partner. Next, ask "Would you describe yourself as an angry person?" Allow for some discussion. Help kids see the difference between how you felt at a certain time and how you tend to behave all the time. A "trait" is true all or much of the time. An "emotion" is true only for that situation.

Below is my handy anchor chart. You can't tell in the photo, but the "Emotions" side is written and colored in purple, while the "Traits" side is written and colored in blue.

Character Traits Anchor Chart: Emotions Vs. Traits

If you'd like some more resources, check out my Character Study pack on TPT. You'll find a student booklet, foldables, and notebooking ideas! 🙂 Plus, I've included a free COLOR version of the printable anchor chart in the PREVIEW file!

Character Study Pack on TPT

Back to the books! Here are some of my favorite read-alouds for teaching character traits. I like to start with short, simple books like "No, David!" because the kids don't get lost in the story or zone out while reading. You can spark surprisingly rich discussion about a simple character like David. Is he bad? Is he good? What words best describe him? And you can easily begin teaching lots of great vocabulary (kindhearted, impulsive, energetic, playful, forgetful, etc.). Plus, I just love David!

I'd love to hear any other book recommendations! There are so many great ones to choose from!

🙂 Kady

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3 Secrets for Teaching Character Traits - Teacher Trap

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I love teaching character analysis! I love looking closely at an interesting character and trying to uncover what makes them tick. And in my experience, kids love this process, too. Unfortunately, for many kiddos, understanding character traits is a bit tricky. Here are three big pitfalls and what to do about them!