Get Inside the Mind of a Character Reading Literature Activity
Better than a book report! Students delve into the minds of characters they’re reading about. In this post, there are samples of the “minds” of Anne Frank from The Diary of Anne Frank, Pi Piscine from The Life of Pi, Margaret Clark from The Homeroom Diaries, which were done by middle schoolers and a high schooler. There is a link to a FREE lesson packet full of graphic organizers for analyzing literature, and it includes the template for the blank head.
Here is a sample of characterization of Anne Frank using the head:
Follow These Easy Steps:
1) Student selects a literary character or teacher selects characters for students.
2) Students take about five minutes to brainstorm any ideas they have about what is likely going on inside their characters’ minds such as: recurring thoughts, fears, joyful thoughts, strong memories, recent feelings, recurring images, dreams, convictions they live by, things they say a lot, how their minds work, etc. Students can make lists or quickly jot down ideas on a scratch piece of paper.
3) Using the template provided in the free lesson, students turn their ideas into images, quotations, and miscellaneous “thoughts” going on in their characters’ minds. The final product should be visually appealing and neat. In my example below, I focused on about 13 total “thoughts” going on in the mind of Anne Frank.
By the way, the free template also comes in the free lesson “What I learned this school year” (which is for students to reflect on what they learned) if you want to grab that.
Additionally, it comes in another free lesson packet called “Analyzing Characters 6 Ways With 6 Characters from 6 Stories Using 6 Graphic Organizers,” which I think you’ll love (especially since it’s free!). And, I wrote a blog post to go with it “Analyzing Characterization for 6 Characters in 6 Stories” to show each of the graphic organizers in action, using actual samples from actual stories (and links to those free stories you can use too). So check all these free items out for even more to do in English language arts class!
Examples Made by ALL Ages are Below:
8th Grade Student Example: Get Inside the Mind of Margaret Clark from Homeroom Diaries
7th Grade Student Example: Get Inside the Mind of Pi Patel from The Life of Pi
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