Looking for character traits

In Reading we have been looking at character traits – these are ways we can describe the identities of the characters we read about.

The traits could be physical (which means they are things we can see like the character could be tall, blonde haired, freckled) or it could be based on their personality (something we can’t see like they could be caring, mischievous, imaginative).

To find out what the traits of the characters were, we had to find evidence.

Here is the work one group did when they looked at the book ‘Pig in Love’.

When we shared some of our findings we discovered that authors are more interested in making sure the reader knows about the personality of the characters rather than how they look. They do this so the reader can make text-to-self connections.

We also learnt that authors can help us learn about a character in different ways:
1. They can just tell us what they are like, for example, ‘She was a clever girl’ = she was clever
2. They can describe the actions of the character, for example, ‘He gave his last dollar to the charity’ = he was generous
3. They can tell us what the character said, for example, “I think you are smelly and I don’t want to be your friend!” = the character is rude.

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