Using Information from a Story to Develop Descriptions of Characters

Subject: English

Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Corresponding Common Core State Standard: 
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

Reason for choosing this video:

This video is an excellent resource teachers can use to demonstrate to students how to obtain information from a story in order to develop adequate descriptions of the story’s characters. Not only does the video review and define the different aspects readers should be looking at when trying to develop descriptions about the story’s characters (which include the character’s actions, thoughts, and dialogue), the video also provides a step by step demonstration of how to find each of these aspects within the story and how to use them to develop descriptions about the characters. One of the benefits of using this video is that it already contains a passage providing excellent examples of the different aspects readers should search for when trying to develop descriptions of the story’s characters.

          Another benefit of using this video is that it could easily be shown to all students at the same time. On the other hand, it would be very time-consuming if teachers tried to find an adequate story passage and tried to demonstrate the skills to each student individually. If deemed necessary, after viewing the video and discussing the video’s content, the teacher could provide the classroom with another story passage and ask students to demonstrate their newly learned skills. The aforementioned activity would serve as reinforcement of the newly learned concepts and would allow teachers to gauge how much of the video’s content and concepts was understood by students. Overall, this video is perfect for introducing students to a set of skills and the aspects that should be searched for when developing descriptions about the characters in a story.