Are you looking for character traits activities for 2nd grade? Do you want to find some relevant mentor texts that will help teach character traits? If so, then this blog is perfect for you! Here I will provide a free list of engaging titles and authors associated with teaching character traits and creative strategies for using them effectively. Let’s look at teaching character traits with options for differentiating instruction and helpful resources!
What Are Character Traits?
Before you can confidently begin teaching about character traits, it is crucial to scaffold learning so your students have a strong understanding of characters and adjectives. Reviewing these two skills will help guarantee all of your students are on the same page. I like to do two mini-lessons.
- What is a character? This short video by Teaching Without Frills is a perfect precursor to your character traits unit
- Follow up with identifying characters in stories you’ve read as a class
Review adjectives with this free adjective sorting activity
I also love using books for teaching parts of speech:
Character Traits Anchor Chart
Using visuals to teach students about character traits in stories is an incredibly effective strategy. When students have visual reminders to refer back to throughout the lesson or unit, the information is more likely to stick with them.
Visuals encourage critical thinking as students can infer traits based on a character’s appearance, expressions, and actions, fostering a deeper connection to the story and its characters. Integrating anchor charts and reference posters into character trait lessons not only makes learning more enjoyable but also promotes a more comprehensive understanding of the narrative.
Categorize Character Traits
Once students have a basic understanding of how to identify traits, it’s time to dive deeper. The next character traits activities will get your students thinking beyond physical traits. There are many layers to understanding character traits. It’s helpful to break it down into smaller parts and focus on one at a time.
- Internal and External: Internal character traits are those that are not physical and cannot be seen from the outside, such as honesty, kindness, and perseverance. On the other hand, external character traits refer to physical features or actions, such as hair color, clothing choices, or facial expressions. It is important for students to understand the difference between these two types of traits in order to accurately analyze and categorize characters in literature.
- Actions, Words, Feelings, and Thoughts: Teaching students to use a character’s actions, words, feelings, and thoughts as evidence to support character traits is key.
- Positive and Negative: Identifying whether a trait is positive or negative will help students analyze a character’s motives and make inferences. It’s also important to note that characters often have a combination of both positive and negative traits.
How characters change over time: As students learn about character traits, it’s important to also teach them how characters can change over time. For example, a character may start off as selfish but learn to be more generous as the story progresses. This demonstrates to students that change is possible and can lead to personal growth.
How to Use Mentor Texts to Teach Character Traits
Incorporating a variety of mentor texts will help expose students to many different characters. It allows students make connections, relate to different perspectives, foster empathy, and build critical thinking. Students will understand how traits shape the story, actions, and relationships.
Free List of Mentor Texts for Teaching Character Traits (Download Now!)
You will want to pick a book with strong characters–like someone who is really brave, kinds, or sneaky. The traits need to be super obvious (to begin with) so that students can pick up on it.
Once you decide on a mentor text, set the stage for the lesson by explaining what students should be looking and listening for. Make sure to pause at key moments. Ask questions like:
- “What do you notice about how this character is acting?”
- “Why do you think the character did that?”
- “What did the character say? What does that tell us about them?”
- “How is the character acting towards other characters?”
Then, have students decide on words to describe the character. As they create their list, discuss each trait and prompt students to provide evidence from the story (something the character did or said). This part of your lesson will be a lot of discussion, modeling how you would determine a character’s trait or support your answer with evidence, and recording students’ thinking.
After you have practiced together, it’s all about reinforcing it. I might have them compare the character to themselves or someone they know, or even to another character in a different story. That way, they’re really thinking about how these traits show up in different ways.
Character Trait Graphic Organizers
One of the most effective character traits activities is pairing a graphic organizer with a text on the students’ reading level. Using different graphic organizers paired with leveled or decodable text will help students be able to practice character traits in an appropriately challenging way. Allowing students to choose their graphic organizers is also a great way to provide students the opportunity to take ownership of the way they show their understanding. I love having ample choices of graphic organizers to use with each text!
Learn more about the resources highlighted in this post about teaching character traits.
Grab this FREE Scope and Sequence + BONUS list of mentor texts to use for each reading comprehension skill to help you plan! —> FREE Comprehension Skill Scope and Sequence. If you would like to read more blog posts like this one, click here.
