Literary Character Trading Cards
This is a great activity to get students involved with the characters they are reading about. It could work with any round character, whether it be one from a novel or short story.
The online tool takes you through the process step by step, asking questions about the character’s description, insights, development, and statements and actions, and finally about the reader’s impressions of the character.
It’s really easy to use; you can skip questions and come back to them, either with the “last question” and “next question” buttons or with the section links. All of your answers are viewable immediately on the card at right.
The hardest part for me was paring down my answers to fit within the word count! Especially for one of my all-time FAVORITE characters, Atticus Finch, it took me some time to say everything I wanted to say in the space allowed. =)
Once you’re done, print it out. The sheet turns into a playing card after you cut it out and fold it over, and there is a place for a (pasted-on?) picture, also.
The ReadWriteThink site is a humongous collection of English/language arts activities and lesson plans. The organization is a collaboration between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation. I’m adding this site to my resource links today!
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We used this tool Friday in my advanced English 10 classes. Since we’re just finishing up our Lord of the Flies unit, I asked my students to choose a character from that novel. The ones I’ve looked at so far are very insightful. Today, we’re going to find pictures and cut them out; then, I’m going to ask them to comment about the activity below! =)
Making character trading cards was a new experience for me. I will admit, I was very hesitant about it and I still think it’s kinda weird. I guess you could say that it’s a creative way to get to know the characters in a story, but I didn’t think it was an extremely fun activity. I guess I’m the type of student that when asked to explain the characteristics of a certain character, immediately gets ready to write a comparative essay. Making these cards was definitely a learning experience for me, and I’m all for learning new things…
We used these cards to understand our characters in the book a little better. I think that it was a good way to do that, and i aslo think it made our brains think a little harder then we planned =]. I think it was a good exercise overall! I would like to do that for every book we read… =]
This was a really neat tool to use with the characters.
This was definitely an interesting assignment!I appreciate that
our teacher put some thought into the assignment. It means a lot
to me that she didn’t just assign a traditional task, like an essay. This task was a nice break in routine and it required a type of abstract thinking. Overall, I enjoyed the character trading cards. I agree with Claire–we should do these for every novel we read. :]
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THEM
i think they are so creative!!!!
I thought it was a fun and creative activity. I did Piggy and I had to think a lot before I could write something.
I think that the character trading cards were a good idea. They allowed us to learn more about the characters in the novel by doing something that wasn’t boring or typical. Also, the card asked questions that helped you have a better understanding of what you had read.
The trading cards were fun to do and a good idea. They were a very creative way to remember things about a certain character.
i thought the trading cards were an interesting and creative idea to help students to understand characters better. i was something i had never done before. i helped organize character’s information in an understandable format.
The cards were a great idea. They made us really think who made a change in the story.
I think the trading cards were a good way for us students to express how we felt about the book.
The Character trading cards were sort of fun to make. It made me think more about my character in the story and develope a better idea of them. I thought it helped a bit and it was something new and fun i’ve never done before and i wouldn’t mind making another.
I think the trading cards were a great learning experience. It helped me get to know my favorite character in the novel better. This sure was a fun learning experience and it helped out my skills on evaluating characters(people)! :}
I loved this activity because it give’s you a chance to get to zoom in on your favorite character.You can explain what you like about the character and when someone ask you what you like about them your trading card is the best reference.
I think that the trading card assignment was a unique approach to get us to better understand a character (in my case, Piggy). Also, in order to answer some of the questions, we had to have a grasp of how the character we selected fit into the story, so it also showed if we had read and paid attention in class. Overall, I’d say it was a good assignment.
I think that the trading cards were a good idea because you can know more about by looking at the cards.
Using character trading cards was a new experience for me. Although it was a unique and creative assingment! I did ralph and it was fun telling my true feelings and insite on one particular character!
The trading cards was a very unique assignment which helped me understand the assignment better.
I thought the trading card were very fun and creative.
I thought the trading cards were very fun and creative.
In my opinion, the trading card activity was a good way to better understand the characters.
I thought the character trading card activity was fun and creative. I liked that it was something I had never done before. It really made you think about the character you picked in the book and help you understand the character better. You had to think about specific details which would not come to my mind initially if I was thinking about the character. I liked that the cards were organized and the picture was a cute addition. Overall, I think the assignment was fun and I would like to do it again.
I really liked the idea of the character trading cards! It was something new and it was good way to help the students express their thoughts about the book.
I really liked the idea of the character tradinng cards it was definately something new.
I really liked the idea of the character trading cards. It was really fun and very creative.
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I really enjoyed the character trading cards!