Dakota State University

College of Education  

Describing Characters with Textual Evidence

Name: Morgan LeGrand

Grade Level: 6th Grade
School: Harrisburg South Middle School
Date: 10/20/2022
Time: 46 minutes (5 class periods)

Reflection from prior lesson

● For the prior lesson, we read the first chapter of our class novel titled, “The Watsons Go to
Birmingham.” Learners were engaged and seemed to enjoy reading and listening to the first chapter. I
asked questions about characters and their character traits that we had seen thus far and learners
showed me that they understood what we were reading. We listened to an audio recording for the first
chapter as students followed along in the text to enhance reading fluency and comprehension.
● Learners were engaged with the text and excited to continue reading this novel. There were a couple
times I had to refocus learners' attention and remind learners to raise their hands instead of just blurting
out answers. When this happens, I will raise my own hand, point to it, and tell learners that I will call on
them when their hand is raised.

Lesson Goal(s) / Standards 

● Previous standards: 5.RL.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly
and when drawing inferences from the text.
● 6.RI.1 Cite relevant textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
logical inferences drawn from the text.
● 6.RI.3 Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in
a text.
○ I want learners to describe characters from our novel and provide evidence from our reading.

Lesson Objective(s)

● The learners will use evidence to describe the traits of at least 3 characters in a story.
● The learners will use the text in a piece of nonfiction to support their analysis of the information and to
draw inferences.
● The learners will analyze how people, events, or ideas are introduced, illustrated, and elaborated upon
in a piece of nonfiction.

Materials Needed 

● “Miko’s Bedroom” Short Story

● Print out character traits worksheet
○ “Miko’s Bedroom” short story & Print out character trait worksheet attached here
● Anchor Charts - Character Traits & Text Evidence
○ Images of these anchor charts are attached here
● “The Watsons go to Birmingham” - Chapter 1
○ PDF attached here

Contextual Factors/ Learner Characteristics

● Contextual factors vary for each class period as learners choose what time they come to each class
throughout the day.
 ● The classes are very energetic and talkative, there are around 97 students on our sixth grade team.
There are a total of 48 girls and 49 boys. Student’s get restless - so it is important to not keep students
at the carpet for the whole time, we like to get them up and moving. There are six English Language
Learners on our team and they come to ELA second period every day. There are four students on 504
plans on the team, 22 learners on IEPs and eight students on IEPs who are on our team; however, they
do not attend this English class.

Connection(s) to Research & Theory

Formative Assessment: I will observe students during class participation and small group work. I will also
evaluate students’ ability to do the following:
● make inferences about characters support their understanding with evidence from the text and
prior knowledge
● explain how they use text clues and their own ideas to make inferences about characters
● Provide reteaching and opportunities for additional practice as needed.
Activating Prior Knowledge: Learners have discussed and worked on character traits prior to this lesson. I will
discuss with and remind what character traits are by looking at our anchor chart. Learners have already read
chapter 1 of the text we will be practicing with individually.
Scaffolding: I will go through describing a character with learners and using textual evidence, learners will then
have a chance to do it as a whole group, and then the opportunity to do it individually.
Modeling: I will model how to use prior knowledge and text evidence to support thinking about characters
through a shared story, and help students use the skills with another text.

A.  The Lesson 

 
● Introduction
○ getting attention: Riddle
○ relating to past experience and/or knowledge: I will remind learners about character traits and
review what we know about the characters in the novel we are reading.
○ creating a need to know: We need to know how to describe characters, but also how to use
evidence from the text to support our claim.
○ sharing objective, in general terms: We will be able to use evidence to analyze a character using
written supports.

● Content Delivery (30 Minutes, Whole Group Instruction & Individual Instruction )  
○ To begin content delivery, I will instruct learners to meet at the carpet. I will give learners 10
seconds (counting down on my fingers aloud) to get to the carpet. I will tell learners to sit in a wise
spot, having hands to ourselves, and voices off showing me we are ready to begin.”
○ We will then begin reading “Miko’s Bedroom.” I will read this outloud to the class.
i. After reading “Miko’s Bedroom,” I will ask the class guided questions. Some of the questions
may include:
1. “If you saw Miko in person, what would you think of him based on just his
appearance?”
2. “What does Miko’s bedroom reveal about his character?”
3. “Why do you think Miko’s parents are concerned about his sloppy behavior?”
4. “How do you think Miko feels about having a baby brother? How can you tell?
5. “What do you think might motivate Miko to keep his room neat and organized?”
○ After class discussion, we will then move into looking at different character traits that we could give
to Miko.
i. I will ask learners to raise their hands to share some of these traits with the class. As they
share them with the class, I will ask them to share where they found this evidence.
○ On the white board, I will write “Miko is ____ because…”
○ We will discuss as a class how we will use and write the evidence.
○ I will point out the “text evidence” anchor chart; which provides learners with sentence starters on
how to share the text evidence. (for ex: “Miko is lazy because in the story it says ‘he rolled off his
bed, crushing a half-eaten bag of potato chips in the process. This shows me that he is lazy, that he
 doesn’t clean up after himself and uses the word rolled, which also tells me he is kind of lazy”
(Nanninni, p. 3).
i. Since this is a one-page story, we will cite the paragraph we found the evidence in.
ii. I will tell learners that when we use text evidence, after we write the evidence, we must put
the author's last name and page number where we found the evidence in parenthesis.
● When it is time to work individually, I will instruct learners to grab a “Character Traits” worksheet. They will
be instructed to give three different characters from chapter one of our novel, “The Watsons Go to
Birmingham” a character trait, and to find textual evidence for each character trait.
○ I will have books on the desks in buckets prior to starting the lesson.
● Before dismissing learners back to their desks, I will ask if anyone has questions. I will also offer learners to
stay on the carpet if they want extra assistance with this task.
○ Learners will turn these worksheets into me at the end of class so I can assess their understanding
on the topic.

● Closure (5 Minutes)  
○ As class comes to an end, I will gather the class back together and invite students to turn and talk to
share one of the traits and the evidence found in the text with a partner.
○ If time allows, I will have students share their character descriptions/traits with the class. I will ask
learners to share what their partner stated as well.
○ At the end of the class, I will say: “As we read, we can pay close attention to how a character acts
and speaks in a story. This can help us learn more about who we are reading about and who a
character is as a person.”

B. Assessments Used
Formative Assessment

● I will informally assess students by listening as they pair-share their ideas and asking open-ended
questions about the characters students chose to focus on in the independent work portion of the
lesson.
● At the end of the lesson I will collect student worksheets and assess whether students were able to use
the classroom anchor chart and accurate evidence to describe their fictional character.

C. Differentiated Instruction

● Adaptations for students with special needs or not meeting expectations

○ For students with special needs or not meeting expectations, during individual time, I will ask
them to meet me at the carpet and we will work on describing characters with textual evidence
as a group. I will also walk around and assist learners where it is needed.
● Adaptations for those exceeding expectations
○ For those exceeding expectations, I will encourage them to write more complex sentences &
descriptions about their characters; rather than just stating the trait.
● Language Support
○ For English Language Learners, I will provide pre-written sentence starters on the anchor chart
attached under materials. They may use these starters when using textual evidence.
○ I will prompt these learners to share their thoughts with other ELLs prior to writing the traits &
evidence down.
○ I created a translated version of “Miko’s Bedroom” story into Spanish for one of our ELL
Learners. (linked)
○ Learners will have the option to stay on the carpet for a more guided version of completing the
task.

D.  Resources
“The Watson’s Go to Birminham” Chapter 1
“Miko’s Bedroom” Short Story
Copy of translated version of “Miko’s Bedroom”