Goal 6 is important because character development usually occurs in the plot. It’s important for students to understand that characters are built. They need to pay close attention to the details in order to “get to know” the character in the story. Some details include: their looks, how and what they say, what they don’t say, their moods/emotions, actions, their opinions, etc. With all of these details, the reader must also “dig deeper” in order to infer and synthesize the characters as well. On page 164, Serravallo discusses what students should be able to do in terms of thinking about the characters to help understand the text.

My Top Strategies

6.2 What’s in the Bubble?

This strategy helps students to pause and think about what the character in the story may be thinking or what the character could be saying. I really like this strategy because it allows the readers to infer and dig deeper into the text.

6.18 Complex Characters

Characters are multi-faceted. It’s important that readers understand that a character can act one way in one situation and another in another situation. I think this is important for students/readers to understand. Support the readers by making sure that they have a character trait sheet in their reading journals to be able to describe the various traits of the characters.