Amazing Grace - Main Character Analysis

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

In order to understand or compare yourself to a character in a book or story, it’s important to understand character traits.

Character traits are adjectives that describe a person or character.

• Internal character traits are thoughts and feelings that happen inside the character.
• External character traits are things that can be observed on the outside of the character.

In this lesson, you will explore the main character by studying character traits, using graphic organizers, and reading Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman.

Watch the Character Traits and Character Development Lesson (Susan McGannon) and Character Traits in Stories (Mometrix) videos below to learn about internal and external character traits:

Next, read along and listen to Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman (produced by Dallas Reading Plan and Dallas Schools Television (below). Grace is the main character of the book. As you read along, think about Grace’s internal and external character traits. The following questions may be helpful as you think about Grace’s character traits:

• What do you notice about Grace? (For example, Grace LOVES stories.)
• How does Grace act or behave in the book?
• How does Grace dress?

1. Complete the Character Map Graphic Organizer found under Downloadable Resources in the right-hand sidebar.
2. In the center circle, put the name or picture of Grace.
3. Choose four character traits for Grace. Write one character trait in each of the outer rectangles.
4. Underneath each character trait, write or draw an example from the story of how Grace displays the trait. For example, Grace is lively, so you would write "Lively" in the rectangle, then write a sentence or draw a picture about how Grace acts out many of the stories she hears.
5. Visit Sample Character Traits from ReadWriteThink for ideas to describe Grace.

Now that you know about Grace, show how much you know about yourself in the Got It? section!