1. Creating Character Sketches
Randy Kuiper
Cornerstone University

2. Rationale & Background
Goal: to incorporate more technology into my reading and writing curriculum
Every year it seems that students dislike writing more and more. I want my students to be excited about writing, and feel that incorporating technology will be helpful in doing this.
I also want to give students more chances to read their classmates writing!

3. Why Technology?
I want to motivate students in their work during reading and writing tasks, and they respond well to the use of technology.
I want to provide students the opportunity to revisit their writing by having them type and submit pieces from their journal.
I want to help students make connections between books they read and ways they reflect on the book in their writing.

4. My Lesson Objectives
Students will learn to identify character traits while listening to a read aloud of the book Chrysanthemum.
Students will work whole group to create a character sketch of Chrysanthemum based on the traits identified.
Students will create a character sketch by coming up with traits from a character in a book they read.
Students will respond to a blog post in which they will state the title and author of their book, as well as explain 3 character traits they observed in the character from their book.

5. Michigan GLCE’s
R.MT Students will self-monitor comprehension by using strategies including asking questions before, during, and after reading and discussing the most important ideas and themes in a text.
R.NT Students will respond to individual and multiple texts by finding evidence, discussing, illustrating, and/or writing to reflect, make connections, take a position, and/or show understanding.
R.CS Students will develop and discuss shared standards and begin to assess the quality and accuracy of their own writing and the writing of others with teacher guidance.
PK-2.CC.1. – Students will work together when using digital tools (e.g., word processor, drawing, presentation software) to convey ideas or illustrate simple concepts relating to a specified project.

6. Lesson Materials Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
iPad hooked up with projector
Student’s notebooks and pencil

7. Lesson Introduction – Day 1
Begin lesson by asking students to describe themselves in one word. As students take turn sharing their word for themselves, allow other students to brainstorm words they think describes that student. Save time for three or four students to share their initial word.
Students love to share in first grade so I will have to make sure to limit this to only a few students…

8. Main Lesson – Day 1 Explain what a character sketch is to students.
Introduce the book Chrysanthemum. Briefly describe for students that as you read the book, it is their job to identify as many traits as possible that would describe the main character Chrysanthemum.
Read through the story, showing pictures to the students as you go.
Allow students to share traits they have identified, encouraging them to explain why they picked that trait by using proof from story.
As students identify traits, create a sketch using the app SimpleMind. Explain to students as you go how all of the traits of the sketch you are creating are related to the character which is why the lines go from each trait back to the character’s name.

10. Student Activity – Day 1
Explain to students that during writing time of the Daily 5, they must find a character from a book they are reading and create a character sketch in their notebooks.
Remind students to write the name of the character in the center of the page and draw lines from the name to the traits that are described.
During this activity, observe and help students as needed while they are working on creating character sketches.

11. Student Activity – Day 2
This day will take place in the computer lab. Students will be guided to my website so they can participate in the following activity.
As a comment to my blog post, students must enter the title and author of the book they chose, followed by the name of the character that they did a character sketch on, and finally they will write a short report using at least three traits and explaining why those traits fit that character.

12. Blog Entry and Sample Comment
This is the blog entry that my students will go to on my website.
Character Sketches
We learned about Character Sketches after reading through the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  The purpose of character sketches is to provide readers with a strong picture in their mind of a character in the book they are reading.  The sketch will help the reader understand how that character looks, talks, acts, and thinks.   In your journal, you created a character sketch of a character in a book you were reading.  Your assignment today is to find the sketch you created and write a blog entry explaining some of the traits you included in the sketch.  This will allow you to share your Character Sketch with your classmates.  Begin with the name of the character you chose, followed by the title of the book the character is from and the name of the author of the book.  Then write about three or more traits.  Name the trait and write the reason why you thought the character had that trait. A sample of this assignment will be found as the first comment under this post! 
This is my sample comment that students can refer to as a guide.
Name of Character: Chrysanthemum Title and Author of Book: Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes The first character trait I noticed in Chrysanthemum is that she is nice. At school, when all of her classmates laughed at her name, she did not say anything mean back to them. This showed that she did not want to be mean back to them. The second trait is that she loved her parents. Even though she came home from school sad, her parents made her food, played games with her, and gave her hugs and kisses. This always made her feel better because she loved them. The last trait is that she was usually happy. She loved her name, was excited to go to school, and enjoyed spending time with her family.

13. Assessment Rubric Marked as √+ Marked as √ Marked as √-
Character Sketch journal entry
Student showed a great knowledge of how to create a character sketch, showing they listened well to lesson.
Student showed medium knowledge of creating a character sketch, showing they listened to some of the lesson.
Student showed no knowledge of creating a character sketch, showing they did not listen well to lesson.
Initial Information for blog entry
(name of character, title of book, and author)
All of this
information
is present.
Some of this
None of this
Character Traits and Details provided in blog entry
Student provided
at least three traits
with explanation.
only two traits
one or less traits
Attitude & Behavior in Computer Lab
Student exemplified
a great attitude and behavior while accessing and completing assignment.
a good attitude and behavior while accessing and completing assignment.
a bad attitude and behavior while accessing and completing assignment.
Typing Skills
Blog entry is easy to decipher: few spelling and punctuation errors.
Blog entry is readable: consistent spelling and punctuation errors.
Blog entry can not be deciphered: many spelling/punctuation errors.