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Pixton Lesson 5:

Characters

Learning Objective: To understand what a character is and how their relationship drives the story.

Overview: In this lesson, your students will explore what a character is and how they drive the story's plot.

Success Criteria:

  • I know what a character is.

  • I know how to select a character to add to my story.

  • I understand that characters’ relationships help to enhance the narrative of the story.

Materials Needed:

Copy to my Google Slides

Lesson Plan

Minds-On:

  • Slides 1-4: Play the Twin Game. 

Directions: 

  1. Print and cut out the playing cards. 

  2. Give one card to each student. 

  3. Have students act out their character. 

  4. The object of the game is to have students find their classroom “twin” (the person who is acting out the same character).

  5. Twin pairs sit down until all twins have been matched. 

Note: If there is an odd number of students, hand out the three teacher cards. If there are an even number of students, hand out only the pairs of cards.

Inquiry:

  • Slides 5-11: Read and discuss using the following questions:

    • How might we show a character's thoughts, feelings or actions in a comic? E.g., having a conversation, speech bubble or posing their character a certain way.  

  • Slides 12- 15: Brainstorm different characters from books or movies e.g., villains, main characters, or secondary characters.

  • Slides 16-18: Work through the slides and discuss these characters.

    • What do they add to the story?

    • What are their traits?

    • What  makes them great characters?

    • How do their relationships with other characters add to the storyline?

Activity:

  • Slides 19-21: Have students select one of the two casts on Slide 21 and create a story based on the characters in their cast.

  • Remind the students to think about their character's relationships, the problem between the characters and how they will act, feel and think in the story. 

  • Students can find the characters by searching for the hashtag in the character search bar.

Consolidation: 

  • Share the comics. Print them off and have students vote on which cast had the best storyline!