Help students look beyond a character's words and actions to develop deeper understanding, make inferences and support their thinking with evidence.
Understanding characters is an important reading comprehension skill. Students need to consider what characters say, do and feel, explore their motivations and recognise how characters change throughout a story.
These three differentiated think mats guide students through character analysis, encouraging them to use textual evidence, make thoughtful inferences and reflect on the author's choices.
With three levels of support and challenge, teachers can select the template that best suits each student's learning needs.
Students will:
Explore characters' actions, dialogue and feelings.
Make inferences about character traits and motivations.
Use evidence from the text to justify their thinking.
Examine how characters respond to events and other characters.
Identify and explain character development and change.
Consider how authors develop characters to communicate ideas and themes.
Reflect on and deepen their understanding of characters.
What's included:
Explorer: A scaffolded five-step think mat helping students explore what characters do, say and feel, make simple inferences and recognise character change.
Investigator: A five-step think mat encouraging students to use textual evidence, explore character motivations and explain how and why characters change.
Analyst: A more challenging seven-step think mat requiring students to analyse characterisation, motivations, relationships, contradictions, development and the author's intended message.
3-page printable PDF digital download.
Perfect for guided reading, reading groups, independent comprehension tasks, novel studies, literature discussions and formative assessment.
Suitable for use with a wide range of fiction texts – no specific book required.
Help students look beyond a character's words and actions to develop deeper understanding, make inferences and support their thinking with evidence.
Understanding characters is an important reading comprehension skill. Students need to consider what characters say, do and feel, explore their motivations and recognise how characters change throughout a story.
These three differentiated think mats guide students through character analysis, encouraging them to use textual evidence, make thoughtful inferences and reflect on the author's choices.
With three levels of support and challenge, teachers can select the template that best suits each student's learning needs.
Students will:
Explore characters' actions, dialogue and feelings.
Make inferences about character traits and motivations.
Use evidence from the text to justify their thinking.
Examine how characters respond to events and other characters.
Identify and explain character development and change.
Consider how authors develop characters to communicate ideas and themes.
Reflect on and deepen their understanding of characters.
What's included:
Explorer: A scaffolded five-step think mat helping students explore what characters do, say and feel, make simple inferences and recognise character change.
Investigator: A five-step think mat encouraging students to use textual evidence, explore character motivations and explain how and why characters change.
Analyst: A more challenging seven-step think mat requiring students to analyse characterisation, motivations, relationships, contradictions, development and the author's intended message.
3-page printable PDF digital download.
Perfect for guided reading, reading groups, independent comprehension tasks, novel studies, literature discussions and formative assessment.
Suitable for use with a wide range of fiction texts – no specific book required.
