Make teaching character traits clear, engaging, and standards-aligned with this complete upper elementary and middle school ELA unit! This print-and-go character traits reading unit is perfect for helping students in 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade move beyond surface-level thinking and truly analyze characters and their traits.
With 10 scaffolded mini-lessons, interactive notebook pages, built-in assessments, and ready-to-use student materials, this unit takes the guesswork out of teaching character traits—and helps your students build the critical thinking skills they need for deeper literary analysis.
Whether you’re introducing character traits for the first time or reviewing after a literature unit, this resource is designed to fit seamlessly into your Reader’s Workshop or whole-group instruction.
Each mini-lesson follows a consistent and practical format that supports modeling, independent practice, and discussion. Student materials are low-prep and high-impact, making your planning easier and your instruction more effective.
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10 standards-aligned mini-lessons
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Interactive notebook pages with examples
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Reading response activities
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Pre-assessment and post-assessment (with answer keys)
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Rubrics and teacher data collection sheets
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Common Core alignment for 4th–8th grade
Your students will learn to define, identify, and analyze character traits with evidence, while practicing close reading, annotation, and written response. This unit is especially helpful for upper elementary and middle school students who need support moving from basic trait identification to deeper analysis.
The 10 included mini-lessons are:
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Pre-Assessment
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Using Prior Knowledge to Understand Character Traits
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What Are Character Traits?
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How Do We Use Textual Evidence to Determine Traits?
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Reading Response One
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Why Is Analyzing Character Traits Important?
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Digging Deeper into Character Traits
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Reading Response Two
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Character Traits Culminating Activity
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Post-Assessment
These lessons are 100% done and ready for you to use. Just print the pages, follow the lesson format, and you're set to lead an impactful unit that helps your students dig deeper into character analysis.
Prep is quick and simple… just print, review the plans, and start teaching.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Chasity J. says, "As we are finishing up our class novel I printed this for a character review and my students were excited and engaged. It will be my go to resource for next school year. I have already added it to my lesson plans."
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wendy F. says, "I was looking for a way to extend my students' study of character traits. Many units are written for lower grades, and lack the depth I would like my students to explore. Great resource and holds students' attention."
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lisa T. says, "This resource really helped my students to understand character traits. It provided hands-on activities that helped keep my students engaged in lessons!"
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Copyright © Martina Cahill-The Hungry Teacher. Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this product.