Teaching Characterization in the Digital Classroom

Using digital interactive notebooks to teach characterization in the middle school and high school English classroom

One of the things I love the most about teaching literature is teaching characterization. Authors devote countless hours to creating their characters, and as readers, we grow to love them, hate them, laugh with them, and cry with them. Making connections with characters in literatures is essential, because that is how we connect universal themes and conflicts to our students’ everyday lives. Creating an environment that cultivates a relationship between our students and the characters we read about is essential in supporting a life-long love of reading in our students.

This next year my school is going 1:1. Every single student on school will be given a Chromebook to use, and teachers are encouraged to embrace digital learning. Combining my love of characterization and technology, I am very excited to have students keep a continuous digital characterization interactive notebook throughout the entire year. With every new short story, drama, and novel we read, I will have my students copy and paste their characterization graphic organizers into one Google Slide.

Using digital interactive notebooks to teach characterization in the middle school and high school English classroomAs a ninth grade English teacher, I like to emphasize how characters change and grow throughout the plot. I encourage my students to analyze characters and their actions, dialogue, and various points of view.

My hope in having students work in a continuous, growing digital characterization interactive notebook is that by the end of the year, my students can see a pattern. I want them to be able to easily recognize archetypes on their own. I want them to be able to see, understand, evaluate, and analyze similarities and differences between many of the characters we read from different genres.

To help my students in this process, I’ve created various Digital Characterization Interactive Notebooks. These notebooks will be a valuable tool in my classroom because students will be able to copy and paste different organizers into their notebooks. They will be able to track and analyze main characters as well as supporting characters. But most importantly, completing the activities and graphic organizers in these digital characterization interactive notebooks will provide my students with enough critical thinking and information to be able to successfully write character analysis essays at the end of each major reading assignment.

Available Digital Characterization Interactive Notebooks:

Digital Characterization Interactive Notebook for Any Text

The Outsiders Digital Characterization Interactive Notebook

Romeo and Juliet Digital Characterization Interactive Notebook

The Odyssey Digital Characterization Interactive Notebook

Fahrenheit 451 Digital Characterization Interactive Notebook

Macbeth Digital Characterization Interactive Notebook

The Great Gatsby Digital Characterization Interactive Notebook

To Kill a Mockingbird Digital Characterization Interactive Notebook

Christina

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4 Comments

  • so jealous! My district hasn't gone 1:1 yet. I'll keep my fingers crossed though!

    Reply
  • I wished my district would go 1:1, but our district just laid off 208 teachers and 93 support staff. So, I don't look for it to happen any time soon. However, Since I'm teaching ELA and Math to all of our unsatisfactory students, I have a full computer lab. So, I feel very blessed and excited to be able to switch over to Google Classroom this year. Now, I just have to stay ahead of the kids and learn how to use everything! lol Your posts are very helpful.

    Reply
    • I'm so glad that my posts are helpful. I love using Google Classroom with my students. It is one of the easier platforms to learn. I'm sorry to hear about your district. I hope things improve greatly next year.

      Reply

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