This mini-book project/activity asks students to use quotes and information from the novel or story to draw a character from the story. Teaching the different way authors create characters allows students to better picture them in thier head. Works well as an individual assessment on looking for details or as a partner activity for a short story with wonderful details. This project is best used after you have worked with finding details and picking out quotes with meaning. Also, works best with detailed descriptions. (give up to a week to work on after reading book or story or have students work on as they read something.)
* The project is very simple in description so that teachers can determine what type of quotes they are looking for. In my 8th grade room I stress the need for quotes that reveal personality of a character not just the simple color of their hair.
I am always asking students for proof from the text, and this helps kids dig into that text once again.
October 7, 2011
Not suited to secondary students.
January 17, 2010
Very good!
August 5, 2007
Help
I am in the middle of my 10th year teaching middle school. I currently teach in a Middle School in Glendale Heights, Illinois. I have worked with students from all ability levels and ethnic backgrounds. For the last 2 years I have been working with 8th graders only teaching English and Social Studies. During my teaching I have worked with many different styles of teaching and had my schedule for teaching change often. Currently I teach 4 hour long classes and 2 half hour classes (one a study hall and one a book club for reading) I also direct the school plays and musicals having put up successful productions of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Krazy Kamp and This is a Test. I also lead the Drama Club in fun Improv games and drama exercises each week. Last school year the students performed a play I wrote for them.
