(C) STACEY LLOYD 2024
STACEY LLOYD
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have any questions or queries, This lesson can be applied to any text and used in any literary
unit. The focus of this lesson is to examine how students’
and know that feedback is opinions of characters have changed over the course of
always welcomed. reading a text. Through this exploration, they will analyze
how these responses reflect a character’s development.
This prompts students to consider the author’s choices in
character development and understand the deeper impact
on the overall story and its underlying themes.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Analyze how characters develop over the course of a text,
interact with other characters, and advance the plot or
develop the theme.
WHEN TO USE
Towards the end of/after reading a text, so that students
can chart how characters have changed.
EMAIL:
hi@[Link] IDEAL FOR
Any text: novel or play.
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ANALYZING A LITERARY TEXT: After Reading Lessons
Analyzing Character Development
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to express how their opinions of key characters
have changed and articulate how these responses reflect a character’s development.
Additionally, they will be able to interpret the author’s choices in character development
and understand their impact on the overall story.
Pre-Lesson Planning
Desks
Classroom Layout
p Set up the poster page for the Opening Prompt.
p [Optional] Ready the resources - poster paper, sticky arranged
notes & markers - for the group work option in Step 2. in small
groups
p Print the following worksheets (one per student): of 3 or 4
} [Optional if using in Step 2] At First I Thought... students.
} Character Development Literary Analysis
Opening Prompt | Provocation
QUESTION: On a large poster page, write “Questioning a Character” at the top.
• Hand out sticky-notes to students as they enter, and instruct them to pick
a character who interests them and write a question they would like to ask
this person, now they have finished reading the text.
• Once finished, have students stick these on the poster page and read out
one or two. Discuss how the questions relate to key topics/themes.
Lesson Activities
1. TEACH: Character Development
¡ Ask students: Why is character development important in literature? Do
characters need to change at all? Mind map answers, and discuss.
¡ Explain the following about character development:
Character development in literature refers to the process through
The aim here is to build which a character changes, grows, or evolves throughout a story. This
the ability to analyze and can involve shifts in their personality, beliefs, relationships, or actions
interpret the author’s
decisions regarding as they encounter various challenges and experiences. Effective
characterization and character development makes characters more complex and
character development. relatable, allowing readers to connect with them on a deeper level.
Their changes also help drive the plot forward.
¡ Explain to students that they are going to examine how their own
feelings about characters have changed, because as we reflect on our
initial perceptions and compare them to our feelings later in the story, we
can see how the author has crafted the characters’ growth, challenges,
and transformations.
Continued on the next page...
Teaching Literary Analysis: Character Development
3. CHARTING CHANGES
By examining how their Option 1: Individual Work Option 2: Group Work
own opinions change,
students can see and ¡ Hand out the At First I ¡ Draw the table from the At First I
understand how an Thought... worksheets Thought... worksheets on the board,
author constructs that OR
to students and instruct and have students copy onto LARGE
change through plot
developments and them to complete these chart/poster paper.
characterization. This individually. ¡ Instruct students to work on
exercise scaffolds this
process.
¡ Once students have had a completing this table in their
chance to complete most small groups while discussing, in
of this on their own, instruct detail, their original thoughts about
them to turn to the person characters and how they have
next to them and discuss. changed.
4. DISCUSS
As characters change ¡ Write the following on the board: How does the character development of
and face challenges,
their journeys illustrate
[Insert main character name] link to the topic of [Insert key topic here] & help
important messages construct deeper themes?
and lessons, making the ¡ Discuss the question as a class/in small groups.
themes more meaningful
and relatable to the ¡ [If there is time] Have students start on the homework activity, writing a
reader. paragraph of literary analysis, exploring a deeper theme of the text, and
expressing how character development helps construct it.
Homework Suggestion
Hand out the Character Development Literary Analysis worksheets to students
and have them complete for formative/summative assessment.
(C) Stacey Lloyd 2024
Name: Text:
At first I thought...
Pick any 3 characters, & complete the following chart:
At first I thought... By the end, I thought... What changed your thinking?
Detail your first impressions and opinions. What was your final impression? Key moments / events which shifted your opinions.
name of character
name of character
Charting CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
name of character
(C) STACEY LLOYD 2024
Analyzing Name: Text:
Character Development
complete
How does the development of link to the topic of & help construct deeper themes?
Make notes below: you don’t need full sentences at this stage - Step Three: Now put it all into a fluent paragraph, adding more details, and transitions.
think key words and main ideas.
Step One: Character Development:
At first, they are... At the end, they are...
Step Two: Evidence
Key events / direct quotations:
Step Three: Why is this significant?
The changes in highlight the topic
of because
(c) Stacey Lloyd 2024
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