Analyze A Character Using Extension Menus

A Deep, Complex Extension Menu For Character Analysis

When planning differentiated lessons, it’s easy to get too clever for your own good and cook up a new character analysis activity every week. This results in extra work for you and unnecessary confusion for your students.

As a result, I’ve put this extension menu together. This way, students have a variety of familiar choices to use when analyzing a character. Here’s a sample that includes elements of depth and complexity, content imperatives, and technology.

Using a graphic organizer, show how a character’s actions, thoughts, and speech converge to show a character trait.	Build a playlist of three songs showing a character’s growth during a story. Explain how these songs show the character’s change over time.	Design the character’s room. Each item you place in the room should reveal something about the character. Consider their change over time. Design this room on paper, create a diorama, or build the room in Google Sketchup.
Use images from Flickr.com to create a montage that demonstrates a main trait of your character.	Scholar’s Choice: Design a product (get teacher approval first!)	Create a Twitter feed from your character that shows her/her inner thoughts throughout the story. Be sure to limit each tweet to 140 characters!
Analyze how a character has a convergence of traits from two other characters in the theme.	Develop a diary or blog for your character. Each entry should clearly show the character’s change over time.	Write a Shakespearean Sonnet from your character’s point of view (iambic pentameter optional ).