Introduction
Characterization is an important facet in writing. Consider some of your favorite novels. What is a key defining factor that makes them great? That answer often includes well written characters, because they provide a window through which we can experience the narrative. In this lesson, you will be provided with definitions for what characterization is, how to identify it in the story, and how it is used effectively. After reading from these selected webpages, you will be placed in small groups in order to craft yourselves as characters.
http://udleditions.cast.org/craft_elm_characterization.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/characterization-examples.html
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-characterization.html
Now that you have a better understanding of characterization, you may move on to the task!
Task
At this point you should break into groups of 4 or 5 students. You will then chose one student to be the author. This student will be in charge of coming up with their personal character traits. Keep in mind that the author will be telling you their traits, so this is considered direct characterization. The rest of the students will be ghostwriters. They will provide the author with indirect characterization based on their observations of the author.
List a number of character traits on a clean sheet of paper, and whether or not the trait is either direct or indirect in nature. After you are done