Writing

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SERIES ONE, EPISODE TWO:

CREATING GREAT
CHARACTERS
with SAM COPELAND
Illustrations: Sarah Horne

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Teacher Notes

Sam Copeland:
Creating Great
Characters
Writing stories with believable, three-dimensional characters can
be a tricky thing for primary school writers to master – especially
when there’s the constant temptation to slip your favourite
wrestlers, footballers or youtubers into your story, not to mention
the need to namecheck as many of your friends as possible. I’m
sure every primary teacher has enjoyed reading a story by a Year
3 child that begins: ‘I was at the park with Tom, Ali and Cristiano
Ronaldo…’
While creating believable characters can be difficult, it is a skill well
worth learning. Filling a story with flawed heroes or baddies the reader
can relate to helps to bring the story to life; it can be a valuable way
of driving the plot forward, not to mention the fact that it can be a lot
of fun!

In this teaching sequence, children will have the chance to create

wonderful characters for a story of their own, learning from author
Sam Copeland, creator of the Charlie McGuffin series. Extracts from
the Author in Your Classroom podcast are suggested to introduce each
section of the sequence - these aren’t essential, but are a great way to
connect the learning with how writing happens in the wider world.

This pack includes:

> PowerPoint
> Extracts from Charlie Morphs into a Mammoth
> Planning sheets 1, 2, 3 and 4
> Working wall images and quotes

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Listen to this episode at bit.ly/AIYCSamCopeland,

or wherever you get your podcasts!

Before you start…

• If you and your class haven’t listened to the Author In Your
Classroom podcast with Sam Copeland, you might want to do so
before you begin the teaching sequence. As well as being hugely
entertaining and funny, Sam shares some excellent writing tips.
Listening to a real author talk about their work can be extremely
motivating for young writers and help you to create a sense of
excitement about writing.
• Just search for ‘Author In Your Classroom’ wherever you get your
podcasts (e.g. bitly.com/AIYCSamCopeland). The recording is divided
into three sections, which can be listened to in one go, as a sequence
spread over several days, or individually.
• You might also want to use the resources in this pack to build a
Creating Characters Working Wall, that can be used for inspiration
and as a way of recording and sharing ideas as the class work on
their stories.
• If you haven’t already, you might wish to read one (or more!) of Sam
Copeland’s Charlie books aloud as a class novel. There are three
in the series: Charlies Changes into a Chicken, Charlie Turns into
a T-Rex, and Charlie Morphs into a Mammoth. As well as writing
advice from Sam, the teaching sequence below uses some extracts
and ideas from the third book, Charlie Morphs into a Mammoth, but
reading a whole book gives children the opportunity to see how
different characters relate to each other and develop over the course
of the book, as well as being enjoyable in its own right!

Session 1: Inventing your hero

1. [optional] Play the section of the podcast that starts at 13.02, up
to 15.38. Discuss the part where Sam Copeland talks about writing
characters he likes that he’d like to be friends with.

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2. Using PowerPoint Slide 2, ask the children to work in pairs to devise

a list of character traits that they might look for in a friend. Share
these as a class. Then use PowerPoint Slide 3 to think about the
qualities that might make a good hero. Ask the class: are there any
qualities that could appear on both lists?
3. Next, ask children to think about some flaws that their character
might have. PowerPoint Slide 4 has a list to get them started.
4. Discuss that to create a realistic, three-dimensional character, they
might want to include both types of traits - plenty of characteristics
that make their character likeable as a hero, but also perhaps one or
two negative ones that balance out some of the positive. They can
use Planning Sheet 1 to jot down their ideas.
5. Explain that once they have decided on what their character is going
to be like, they can think about how they can show, not tell this
information to their reader. Ask them to return to their activity sheet.
Working with a friend, can they devise some examples of how they
can show, not tell the reader about their character?
Planning Sheet 2 provides a handy frame for recording their ideas.
6. Once they have completed this task, give children time to share their
characters with the rest of the class. If you are creating a working
wall as you go, you could share some examples of the children’s
characters there.

Session 2: Inventing the villain

1. [optional] Play the section of the podcast that starts at 15.38 (start
at the part where Helen says ‘And actually it is kind of fun…’ until the
part where Helen says ‘…I was quite fond of Dylan by the end), up to
18.32. Discuss with the class the idea of there being a reason for a
villain’s behaviour, as Sam talks about in the podcast.

2. Share PowerPoint Slide 5 with the children, introducing children

to the idea of redeeming features and motives. Explain that in
their story they can choose a redeeming feature or motive for their
villain, which might help to explain their behaviour and make them
understandable and believable. Don’t forget to remind children that
they don’t have to invent an excuse for their bad behaviour, though.
Their villain can still be a real baddy and do terrible things because
that’s what they do!

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3. The children can then use Planning Sheet 3 to create their villain.
Once they have done this, they can share their ideas with a partner or
small group and work together to refine their ideas.

Session 3- Using their characters to plan a story

1. Use PowerPoint Slide 6 to support children to plan a story using their

characters. They can use Planning Sheet 4 to record their ideas.
Prompt them to think about their hero and villain and how their
character traits, strengths and weaknesses might drive the story. If
necessary, prompt them by asking:
• How might your hero’s good qualities lead to action in the story? (If
she is very brave, perhaps she will end up in a dangerous situation?
If he is very honourable, perhaps he’ll have to keep a difficult
promise or put himself in danger?)
• How might their less-positive qualities drive the story? (Perhaps
your character is very greedy and that leads them into a trap? Or
perhaps they are forgetful and they don’t remember a warning until
it is too late?)
• How might your villain help drive the plot? (Perhaps they do
something unexpectedly kind? Perhaps they learn a lesson at the
end of the story?)

Session 4- Writing the story

1. [optional] Play the section of the podcast again that starts at 09:27,
up to 12:06. Ask the children how they felt as the crocodile moved
towards Dylan.
2. Before children begin writing their story, explain that you are going to
look together at how Sam Copeland creates tension and excitement
in his writing.
3. Show children the extract from the text on PowerPoint Slides 7 and 8.
4. Ask the children: How does Sam Copeland make this part of the story
exciting? Discuss that is partly through the content (what the story
is about) as a crocodile about to eat someone makes for an exciting
scene. Explain that is also though Sam’s writing, the language he
uses. Ask children to look and find anything that builds a sense of
excitement and tension. Draw their attention to:

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• The use of different sentence lengths- long sentences for

description, balanced with short dramatic sentences (Chomp him;
Snap!)
• The use of detailed description for the action (great jaws slammed
shut; whimpered with dread)
• The repetition of adverbs (closer and closer).
• The inner monologue of the characters (No, Charlie thought. I can’t
do this!)
• The detailed description (the cold black slit in the green orb; hot
foul breath; vast jaws)

5. Remind the children that they can use these techniques when they
come to write action scenes in their own stories.
6. Ask the children to write their own stories using the characters they
have created. Share with them what might make for an effective piece
of writing, for example:

• Include ways to show your characters different sides- the good

things about them and their negative traits
• Balance telling the reader what your character is like with showing
them through their actions and speech
• Writing in the third person, past tense (Alice was shocked to see…
Sam smiled to himself; his evil plan was working…)
• Think carefully about how they can make action scenes exciting by
using the techniques they have learnt

7. Once the children have finished their writing, ask them to share their
work with a partner or look at some examples together as a class,
asking children to share the parts that they are especially pleased
with. Once they have had some feedback, they can look at their work
again and make some changes to improve it. If you have a working
wall, extracts from children’s work could be displayed for everyone to
see.

After the unit…

• Play the section of the podcast that starts at 20:18 until the end.

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• Pause when prompted and take suggestions for possible

titles for the next book in the series. Perhaps you could send
your suggestions to Sam at the address on his website, or
children could use one of the titles to write their own story
starring Charlie…
• This teaching sequence has given children the chance to write
their own stories featuring a cast of interesting and believable
characters, learning from the wonderful Sam Copeland.
Encourage children to keep on writing: they could write another
story featuring their characters or use the resource sheets and
everything they’ve learnt to create some new brilliant characters
for a completely different story.
• If they haven’t already, hopefully the children will want to read the
other Charlie… books by Sam Copeland. You could read another
book aloud as a class novel or direct children to where they can
find copies to read themselves: the book corner, school library,
local library or a local bookshop.

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resources, book lists and ideas to bring
stories to life at PuffinSchools.co.uk

From & 7 copyright 2020