Warm-Up for Analyzing a Character

Who is your favorite character from a story or novel? Someone with amazing abilities who does astounding things? Someone with major flaws who overcomes them in surprising ways? Is the person likable? Intelligent? Funny? Are other qualities more important? You could answer these questions in many ways because great characters, like real people, are multilayered and complex.

In this unit, you will peel back the layers of a character from a story or novel. In addition to the person's actions, you'll analyze the character's mind, body, and spirit to discover what makes the person tick. In the process, you may even get closer to understanding what really makes a great literary character.

What Is a Character Analysis?

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A character analysis is a response to literature that looks closely at one or more characters from a story or novel. A successful analysis considers different aspects of a character, provides textual evidence about the person, and explains what these details mean in the larger context of the work.

In this unit, you will pick a key character from a work of fiction that you know well. The lessons that follow will help you closely analyze the character, express an overarching idea about the person, and find evidence to support your position.

Thinking About Character Traits

One of the challenges of writing a character analysis is drawing conclusions about someone you have met only through words on a page. You have to rely on text evidence, things the character does and says in the story. Of course, we all make similar judgments about people we've met only in other media, for example favorite icons from music, sports, politics, or movies.

You can warm up your character-analysis muscles by answering interview questions from the perspective of a famous person. Create answers as best you can based on what you know about the person. Here's an example to get you started:

Responding to a Poem for Assessment

When you closely read a poem on an assessment, pay attention to the sounds of poetry, such as rhythm, alliteration, and repetition. Also note the meaning of poetry, focusing on features like imagery, metaphor, and symbolism.

Source 2

Warm-Up for Literature Assessment

Some major assessments test your ability to read and respond to literature.

How Can I Practice for Assessment?

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The best way to practice for a reading and writing assessment is to take a practice test, like the one in this unit. You will closely read a story and a poem and write about them. You'll also write a story of your own.

You’ll find a playful story about a girl who tries to get away from her shadow. You’ll also read a poem about a man speaking to his reflection. Read them closely. You’ll be drawing evidence from them to build a response. You’ll also get to experiment with telling a story of your own.

If you would like more help with closely reading literature and responding in writing, see the unit “Reading and Writing Literature for Assessment.”

Responding to a Story for Assessment

When you closely read a story, pay attention to character, setting, conflict, and theme.

Source 1

Writing On-Demand Essays

A writing assessment gives you a short time to write a paragraph or an essay. To do so, you should use a shortened form of the writing process.

Prewriting (5 Minutes)

Start by reading the writing prompt and analyzing it using the PAST questions.

Sample Writing Prompt

Answer the PAST questions.

Purpose? Explain Jamal’s choice

Audience? Tester

Subject? “Finding Your Instrument”

Type? Essay

Write a focus statement.

Jamal realizes he’s better off choosing his own way.

List supporting details.

--Denny is pressuring everyone to play saxophone.

--Denny makes fun of Jamal.

--Jamal tries trombone.

Warm-Up for Reading and Writing Literature Assessments

Reading lets you experience great stories, and writing helps you tell your own great stories. That's why some major assessments test your ability to read literature, write about it, and maybe even write your own stories.

What Is Literature Assessment?

© Thoughtful Learning 2016

Literature assessments test how well you read stories and poems and whether you can write clearly about them. On some literature assessments, you will create your own stories. This unit will help you prepare for these kinds of assessments.

In the following activities, you’ll learn about close reading—reading to understand how a story or poem works. You’ll discover how writers use character, setting, plot, conflict, and theme to develop stories. You’ll also learn how poets use rhythm, rhyme, imagery, and figures of speech. Then you’ll discover strategies for on-demand writing—strategies for developing your own ideas during an assessment.

Thinking About Close Reading

To read closely, you need to think about the parts of a story: character, setting, conflict, and theme. Even flash fiction has these elements.

Reading a Phase Autobiography

Before writing about an important phase in your life, you should see how another writer wrote about his life. As you read the paragraph and full phase autobiography below, think about how the writer put ideas together and how you might use some of the same strategies in your own writing.

Reading an Autobiographical Paragraph

An autobiographical paragraph has three main parts. The topic sentence states the topic and focus of the story. The body sentences explain the main actions of the story. The ending sentence shares a lesson learned.

Sample Paragraph

1. What lessons did the writer learn from the experience? What details in the body sentences reflect these lessons?
2. What details did you find most interesting in the story? Name at least three.

Reading Historical Narratives

Before you recreate a historical moment, you'll want to see examples from other students. This lesson shows you a sample historical narrative paragraph and essay. As you read them, think about how the writer made the people, places, and events come to life through description, action, and dialogue.

Reading a Historical Narrative Paragraph

A historical narrative paragraph has three main parts. The topic sentence states the topic and focus of the story. The body sentences explain the main actions of the story. The ending sentence wraps up the historical narrative in an interesting way.

Sample Paragraph

Reading Personal Narratives

Before you share a story about a time when you learned a valuable lesson, you'll want to see how other students explored their topics. Read the sample paragraph and narrative essay in this lesson and answer the questions about them. Think about how the writer puts ideas together and how you might do so in your own narrative.

Reading a Narrative Paragraph

A narrative paragraph briefly shares a story about something that happened in the writer's life. It includes three parts: The topic sentence introduces the story. The body sentences describe what happened in time order. The ending sentence tells why the experience was important, possibly by stating a lesson learned.

Sample Narrative Paragraph