2nd Grade Reading

Character Analysis
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Students will be express understanding of a character within their story by use of
clues from the text and deciphering how actions and feelings are related to the
character.
COMMON CORE STANDARD:
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
MATERIALS:
Books Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak and The Giving Tree, by
Shel Silverstein, interview guide, reading guide (when applicable), prop
microphones, paper and pencil for recording, electronic recording devices.
LESSON STEPS:

Students will be assigned one of the two stories to read independently and then
partnered up with another student who was assigned the other book.
One student will play a character from their book and their partner will play a news
reporter asking questions about the event and the characters feelings about the
event. The news reporter will record the information from their interview.
The student who is playing the character is expected to cite actions or feelings from
the text to support their statements as that character.
The students will switch places and play the opposite role for their story.
Have the students record the character as a news reporter would during an
interview.
RATIONALE:
Character is an important aspect of a story that children need to understand in
order to make meaning of what they read. One way that we can teach children to
understand about character is by providing situations for them to empathize with a
character by stepping into their role. Before they can explain how they would feel if
they were in that person shoes they can pretend to be the character, by mimicking
the words and actions they are likely to develop parallels that help them explain the
feelings even if they are not represented in text. Reading provides us many more
opportunities to meet all kinds of different people which in turn helps us to know
what kind of person we would like to be.
Formative Assessment will be achieved through informal monitoring during
interviews.

Summative Assessment will be through review of the recorded interviews for

grading purposes.
RUBRIC
Reader

Interviewer

1
Student could
not recall
details from
the story.
Inaccurate
details are
shared. Little
or no analysis
of character
actions.
Student
attempted or
partially used
the interview
guide but did
not properly
record
information.

2
Student could
recall details
accurately.
Little or no
analysis of
character
actions.

3
Student could
recall details
accurately.
Analysis of
character
actions
misinterpreted
.

4
Student could
recall details
accurately.
Accurate
analysis
included of
character
actions.

Student used
interview
guide correctly
but did not
properly
record all of
the
information
from the
speaker.

Student used
interview
guide correctly
and properly
recorded
information
from the
speaker.

Student used
interview
guide,
recorded
properly and
created own
questions or
asked follow
up questions
to encourage
further
analysis.

CONTENT INTEGRATION:
In this lesson we discuss the thoughts and actions of make-believe characters, and
how those thoughts and actions represent what kind of person the character is. We
could easily integrate social studies into this lesson, by going on to read a nonfiction piece about someone that we would like to study such as Martin Luther King,
Jr. After children discover how to interview and analyze character actions with a
make-believe person it may help them to understand the reasons why historical
figures acted as they did.
DIFFERENTIATION:
For a student that has trouble with reading comprehension, I would provide a
reading guide that would help them to determine what kind of information they
should be reading for. Providing a child with an outline of what they need to get out
of their story helps them to look for key details and comprehend more of what they
are reading beyond the words.