1. Character Traits
Objective: I can describe a character and tell how the character responds to change throughout a text.

2. Essential Questions What is a character trait?
How are internal and external traits different?
How do character traits influence actions?

3. What are traits?
Take a couple of seconds to think about the main character in one of the last 3 short stories read.
What types of traits do you believe the character has?
How do you know their trait by their actions in the story?

4. Character Trait
A character trait is a characteristic or quality of a character that describes the character.

5. External Character Traits
External character traits are traits that you can see and describe what a character looks like.
short hair
red hair
blond hair
glasses
spiked hair

6. Internal Character Traits
Internal character traits are traits that describe the way a character acts.
Can you guess the traits for these characters?

7. Direct or Indirect?
Direct—The author makes direct statements about a character. Ex. Max is so hungry, he wants to eat all the time!
Indirect—The author gives clues, and the reader makes inferences about the character. Ex. Roko stepped between the caribou and his pack leader.

8. How Traits Influence Actions?
Traits can influence a characters actions.
When reading a passage it is important to pay very close attention to how a character acts. The way they act will tell you what trait best describes them.

9. After school on a winter day, Justin was putting his coat away in the closet.When he looked up he saw a shiny piece red paper. As he reached up to grab it he realized it was a gift. To his surprise his name was on the package! Justin knew it was only three more days until he could open it but he could not wait! He carefully opened the package to take a peek. After the excitement of seeing his new toy he carefully rewrapped the package and put it away.
What trait best describes Justin?
a. impatient b. thoughtful c. respectful
What part from the story best depicts this trait?
a. Justin reached up and to his surprise saw his name on the package!
b. Justin knew it was only three more days until he could open the gift but he could not wait!
c. He carefully rewrapped the package and put it away.

10. Lisa was in a nervous looking through her desk for the missing sheet that she remembers she turned in. She was having so much trouble because there were stacks and stack of papers stuffed into the depths of her desk. She then decided to look through her backpack which was not any better than her desk. As she unzipped her bag mountains of paper came flying out.
What character trait best describes Lisa?
a. patient b.unorganized c. forgetful
Discuss with your group your choice and what helped identify this trait.

11. Nick was very excited to see his report card
Nick was very excited to see his report card. He knew that he always worked very hard and turned in all of his work. His parents never had to ask him to do his homework. He also never had missing work because he always remembered to turn it in.
What character trait best describes Nick?
a. busy b. respectful c. responsible
What sentence best describes this trait?
a. Nick is really smart.
b. Nick was very excited to see his report card.
c. He knew that he always worked very hard and turned in all of his homework.

12. Closure
One important thing to remember about character traits is….SYNONYMS!
A synonym is a word that means the same thing as another....like cute and pretty or mad and angry.
In your groups, make a graphic organizer and come up with 5 synonyms for the following words:
nice mean funny
shy responsible scared