The Julian series have been the Quiet Time Read Aloud books for the past few days. Students have been enjoying them quite a lot. It was a great way to get into our Character Study. In the previous Reading lesson, we talked about thinking about what their characters are like as they read their books. They were able to get into their character book clubs and talk about what they read and what they thought about their characters.
Many students enjoyed completing their character webs. It was one of the few assignments that we’ve had that didn’t require them to write a lot, and none of the students had trouble completing it. There were a few students, however, who struggled with a problem. The one issue that did come up was identifying the character traits and not the characters’ feelings. Many kids would say their character is “angry,” “sad,” and “excited.” While I wasn’t surprised by this confusion, I hadn’t prepared for it and realized that I should have.
It was the first graders’ first time identifying character traits, and I knew that I had to discuss the difference between character traits and character feelings. I thought about what I could do to help. I thought about making a list of character traits with the class as part of a mini lesson. We could discuss the difference between feelings and character traits and make sure the list contains only traits. This list of character traits can be used throughout the Character Study Unit and could be hung up in the front of the class for the students to use.
Many students enjoyed completing their character webs. It was one of the few assignments that we’ve had that didn’t require them to write a lot, and none of the students had trouble completing it. There were a few students, however, who struggled with a problem. The one issue that did come up was identifying the character traits and not the characters’ feelings. Many kids would say their character is “angry,” “sad,” and “excited.” While I wasn’t surprised by this confusion, I hadn’t prepared for it and realized that I should have.
It was the first graders’ first time identifying character traits, and I knew that I had to discuss the difference between character traits and character feelings. I thought about what I could do to help. I thought about making a list of character traits with the class as part of a mini lesson. We could discuss the difference between feelings and character traits and make sure the list contains only traits. This list of character traits can be used throughout the Character Study Unit and could be hung up in the front of the class for the students to use.