Character analysis can be a difficult concept to teach and practice since there are so many layers to it. From a test prep perspective, students need to be able to identify and understand a character’s thoughts and feelings.
The tricky part for some students is that the “clues” can come from a variety of story elements. A character’s thoughts can be based on the setting, interactions with others, physical actions, and/or inner thoughts shared within a text. Add in the fact that a character’s feelings often change over the course of a story and you can understand how students struggle to navigate all of these variables.
My students do a good job with literal responses in our novel units, but they often struggle when asked to support their response with evidence from the text. While I encourage them to mark up passages by highlighting the key information they read, finding support in the text is a skill that requires constant practice.
One way to get your students more practice with character analysis is to use task cards. I created my own set of character analysis task cards and they have been very helpful. We use them in literacy centers, partner activities, and even whole-class scoots for some of our novel units.
While I have found that while my students LOVE fiction, it can be a real challenge to get them to analyze and respond in writing to the kind of questioning that is expected of them in state testing. Some struggle to answer multiple step questions, or answer only the first portion of what is asked of them. I need them to be able to support their response with information from the text or by citing textual evidence, so I created these task cards.
If you are looking for an easy way to get your students more practice with character analysis, you can purchase these task cards for only $3.50. The printable and portable format allows for dozens of creative uses.
This entire resource is included in a single PDF file. It includes the following:
- clear directions for immediate implementation
- notes for student understanding
- 32-character analysis task cards
- student answer document
- answer key for quick assessing
You can download the PDF directly from my TPT store here.
Hope you enjoy this resource as you and your students continue to prepare during this test prep time! For more test prep tips and ideas check our this March Madness post.
