Teacher's Guide:

Characterization Paragraphs

using adjectives to inspire a descriptive character description

This lesson was created as a demonstration lesson for the 2005 Picture Books as Mentor Texts inservice class, which was sponsored by WritingFix's SBC Grant.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Tough Boris by Mem Fox. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.

Check out Tough Boris at Amazon.com.

Washoe County teachers, click here to search for this book at the county library.

Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :

Step one (sharing the published model):  Teachers should stress, as they read Tough Boris aloud, what the author has done particularly well in writing this story.  In this case, author Mem Fox has chosen marvelous sounding and imagery-inspired adjectives to center her story around. In addition, illustrator Kathryn Brown, has ingeniously contributed pictures that suggest this pirate's story could be told from another character's point-of-view...the stow-away!

After reading the book aloud once, write the word pirate in the center of a cluster, and see if your students can remember all six adjectives from the book that Mem Fox used to describe Boris.  Surround the word pirate with their adjectives.  If your students come up with adjectives that weren't in the book, celebrate the fact that there are sometimes too many adjectives in the world to choose from, and that Mem Fox chose what she thought were the very best adjectives for her story.

Read the book a second time, this time showcasing the pictures of the elusive stow-away. 

As groups or as individuals, challenge your students to write a paragraph about Tough Boris that would be from the point-of-view of the stow-away.  Imagine it is the first time the boy has lain eyes on the pirate.  Describe what he sees and how he feels at this first glimpse of Boris.  Challenge your students to use as many of the adjectives from the pirate cluster in their "perspective paragraph."  The first page of the three-page pre-thinking and pre-writing worksheet below has a nice space for your students to write these paragraphs.

Have students share their paragraphs with each other.  Celebrate great word choice beyond the adjectives.  Listen for and showcase great verbs and interesting nouns your students might put in their paragraphs.

When done, inform students that they will be writing a perspective paragraph about an original character next.  First though, they will look at some student models.

Step two (introducing models of writing):    In small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson.  The groups will certainly talk about the word choice and the voice, because of the discussion tool that comes with each model.

• Second-graders--Carson and Annabelle--share their character paragraphs.
• Third-graders--Katie and Wally--share their character paragraphs.
• Seventh grade writers--Jennifer and Moshe--share their character paragraphs.
• Eleventh grade writers--Amanda and Erica--share their character paragraphs.

Step three (thinking and pre-writing): The interactive button game on the Student Instructions Page is a follow-up to not only reading the story but also to writing the Tough Boris perspective paragraph.  The word-game attempts to inspire students to create an original character description that could be told from another character's perspective.  Using the next two pages of the thinking and pre-writing worksheet (from below), have students brainstorm the best adjectives they can for three interesting characters.  They will then choose one of the characters on which to base an original perspective paragraph.

Stress the adjective choices as the students pre-write.  If a student writes down pretty, challenge him or her to think of an even better word, if possible.  Let them use the list of 200 breathtaking adjectives, but only if they choose words from the list they feel confidently that they could define for you. You might want to have dictionaries at the ready.

• Tough Boris 3-page handout for students
• WritingFix's list of 200 breathtaking adjectives
• An Alternative Assignment using the same Mentor Text: Tough Boris RAFT Assignment

Step four (revising with specific trait language):  One tool for revision is provided below.  To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach WritingFix's Revision and Response Post-Its to your students' drafts.  Make sure the students rank their use of the trait-specific skills on the Post-Its, which means they'll only have one "1" and one "5."   Have them commit to ideas for revision based on their Post-It rankings.  For more ideas on WritingFix's Revision & Response Post-Its, click here.

• Sheet of 6 Word Choice Post-It Notes
• Sheet of 6 Voice Post-It Notes

Step five (editing for conventions):  After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor.   If you've established a "Community of Editors" among your students, have each student exchange his/her paper with multiple peers.  With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post-it.  The "Community of Editors" idea is just one of dozens and dozens of inspiring ideas that is talked about in detail in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers.

Step six (publishing for the portfolio):  The goal of most lessons posted at WritingFix is that students end up with a piece of writing they like, and that their writing was taken through all steps of the writing process. After revising, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block.  The writing started with this lesson might become even more polished for final placement in the portfolio, or the big ideas being written about here might transform into a completely different piece of writing. Most likely, your students will enjoy creating an illustration for this writing as they ready to place final drafts in their portfolios.

Interested in publishing student work on-line? You might earn a free classroom resource from the NNWP! We invite teachers to teach this lesson completely, then share up to three of their students' best revised and edited samples at our ning's Publish Student Writers group. Fifty teachers a year who do this will receive a complimentary copy of one of the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Print Guides.

To submit student samples for this page's lesson, click here. You won't be able to post unless you are a verified member of this site's Writing Lesson of the Month ning.