FRIDAY, 12TH MAY,

2023
WALA: CHARACTERISATION
WALT:
 Describe new characters through their dialogues
and responses
 Role play a character
 Compare character with a real personality; how
are they similar or different?
Vocabulary:
opportunistic

STARTER
Draw up questions for hot seats.
Introduction
Decide the main characters to be used for the
activity and give reasons for their choices.
Obj 1: Choose the characters, describe or analyse
them and state why you have chosen them.
 
Development
Group task (3 groups)
Obj 2: Using the particular character you have
been given, specify a particular moment* in the
text and nominate someone in your group to take
that particular role in a ‘hot-seating’ activity.
(Give learners 5 minute to prepare for their role as
either questioner or person in the hot seat.)

Obj 3: Who does this character remind you of in

real life or in other texts/movies or play? (Provide
some similarities and differences.)
 THURSDAY, 11TH
MAY, 2023
WALA: CHARACTERISATION
WALT: Define the word and identify the attributes
of characters in the text.
Describe the personalities of characters from their
actions, words, etc.
Justify characters’ personality with evidence from
the text.
 STARTER:

Share vocabularies about the personalities to be explored.

Outcome:
Discuss how characters and their personalities affect a story plot.
Use characters’ responses to get more facts about them.
Introduction
Define the word and set out the different features that are needed to decide “who the characters are” and how to give a detailed description after characterisation.
 
Development
 
Group task
Create a profile of some key characters using the following criteria to ork out their personality.
Class Activity: students answer questions about chapters 11-15

Plenary: Share your new learning with the class.

 Introduction
Define the word and set out the different features that are needed to decide
“who the characters are” and how to give a detailed description after
characterisation.
 
What is characterisation?

 It’s the concept of creating characters in a story.

 Effective characterisation makes a literary character realistic and

believable.

 ‘Direct characterisation’ – explaining the character to the

audience.
 ‘Indirect characterisation’ – showing the reader the character
through his thoughts/speech /appearance/action.
Five Methods of
Characterization
An acronym- PAIRS, can help you recall
the five methods of characterization.
P- physical description
A- action
I- inner thoughts
R- reactions
S- speech
How characters move

He was in a rush.

Without stating that he

was in a rush, describe
how his movements might
demonstrate this idea.
 Physical Description
(Appearance)
What assumptions come to
mind when you see the way
this man is dressed?

Rather than stating ‘he is a

businessman’, it is much
more effective to describe
the way he is dressed and
allow the audience to figure
it out for themselves.
 Appearance
He checked his watch for
the twelfth time that
minute, readjusted his tie
and smoothed his
immaculate pinstripe suit.
His briefcase hung heavy
by his side and his highly-
polished shoes glinted
under the fluorescent
lights.
Activity 1 (Please do this in your note.)
Define ‘characterization’- in your own words.

Between chapters 11-19,(Obj 1) identify the attributes of characters

in the text by making a chart listing the methods of
characterization represented by the acronym PAIRS.

(Obj 2) Describe the personalities of characters from their actions,

words, etc.
List examples from the story for each category. In other words,
what does the author tell you directly and what does he or she
imply? How do other characters in the story react to this
character? What does the character think and say? (Work on 3
characters.)

(Obj 3) Justify characters’ personalities with evidence from the text.

This is your opinion; do you think attributes portrayed by the
characters are good or bad/ true or false? Give evidences from the
text.
Character Author’s Statement PAIRS category

Speech
Uncle Obj 1. It was still difficult to correlate
Boniface the stories of immense wealth with Indirect
the ne’er-do-well lad that lived with characterization which
us all those years ago. But then, it was rebeals that there’s
not today that Uncle Boniface started something strange
making grubby bucks. about how he has
prospered.
Obj 2. The statement above implies
that Uncle Boniface had the
personality of being mischievous (and
tending towards being criminal) right
from childhood and what he did to
prosper confirms it. He believes
making money was more important
that anything else, so he didn’t care.

Obj 3. These are bad attributes of

him and a really bad one.
Lesson Summary

In this lesson, we learned the difference between

direct characterization, what the author tells us
about the character, and indirect characterization,
what the author shows us about the character. We
learned about five methods of characterization
and a good way to remember them by thinking of
the word PAIRS. The five methods are physical
description, action, inner thoughts, reactions, and
speech. We examined each method in a short
example in order to have a good understanding of
how authors use the various methods of
characterization to develop the characters and
create images for the audience.
 Characterisation
Aim: Improve characterisation in
our writing.