Lesson Plan

Character Comparisons

Use this lesson to help your ELs compare and contrast supporting characters from excerpted texts. It can be a stand-alone lesson or support the lesson Understanding Character Traits, Understanding Plot Lesson Part III.
This lesson can be used as a pre-lesson for the Understanding Character Traits, Understanding Plot Lesson Part III lesson plan.
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This lesson can be used as a pre-lesson for the Understanding Character Traits, Understanding Plot Lesson Part III lesson plan.

Objectives

Academic

Students will be able to recognize character traits and use these traits to compare and contrast main characters.

Language

Students will be able to compare and contrast characters with transition words using sentence stems and graphic organizers.

Introduction

(3 minutes)
Compare & Contrast Supporting CharactersLanguage Frames: Compare & ContrastTeach Background Knowledge TemplateWrite Student-Facing Language Objectives ReferenceGraphic Organizer Template: Vocabulary Instruction ChartVocabulary Cards: Character ComparisonsGlossary: Character Comparisons
  • Write the following sentence stems on the board:
    • "I notice..."
    • "It’s interesting…"
  • Project a picture of Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and a picture of Mary from The Secret Garden and ask students to share their thoughts about each of the pictures with their elbow partner.
  • Choose two students to share aloud their sentences about the picture and tell everything they know about the people in the pictures. Use their oral responses to gauge how much information about the novels you'll need to provide the students.
  • Tell students they’ll use their skills in identifying character traits to compare and contrast supporting characters in The Secret Garden and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.