Sunday, April 14, 2013

Literature Love Letters- An ELA Activity and a FREEBIE



Hello friends!

My kiddos and I have been working hard on analyzing characters. We have been using some GREAT novels for the skill:

-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: (this is our core novel-tier 1 that I use to model the skills to my kids)
-Holes: my mid level guided reading novel
-George Washington's Socks: low level guided reading novel
-Among the Hidden Series: challenge level guided reading novel

We have broken down character traits into three parts: 
1. Physical appearance 
2. Character traits
3. Background information

We have spent a great deal of time digging deeper in order to understand all our Hogwarts characters. One of the projects I did in class to give my students the opportunity to practice their skills, and prove mastery, is Literature Love Letters.

I introduce the project telling the students that we will be writing love letters. They groan and I love it. I tell them their love letters will have to include all of the character traits of the person they are writing to and provide some examples. (Think-Anthony, I love your long brown curls; Kaitlin I love how kind you are; etc). Then, because I have a certain flair for the dramatic, I tell the gang they will be writing letters to each other. They groan again and I love it more! I let this go one for a bit and then I tell them that they will be writing to any characters from the novels they are reading or have read this year. Now the excitement, and relief, kicks in.

Here is a sample of the product available on my TPT store


The activity I am sharing today includes brainstorming pages, heart shape paper for your final copy, and a VERY simple template to trace the shoulders and head of the character. The students will write a love letter to their chosen character expressing all their character traits. They have fun choosing evil characters and writing about how they LOVE their evil ways. I also encourage the kids to sign the love letters "yours truly" or "your secret admirer" so that they feel comfortable writing to whomever and whatever they want.

Here are some of this years Literature Love Letters:
Letter in progress...
A love letter to Voldemort and Hermione
Voldemort
Dumbledore



Dumbledore, King Flint Sky God (From The Well of Sacrifice), and Stanley Yelnats (from Holes)

Peeves, Voldemort, and Hermione from the Harry Potter Series
The Warden (of Holes fame)
Ron Weasley and Prof. Flitwick
The display outside the classroom



Check out my project at my TPT store HERE. I will happily send a freebie to the first three followers who comment below telling me who they would write their literature love letter to. Don't forget to include your email in the post so I can send the file to you.

Your buddy,
Damien

3 comments:

  1. I would send to Fancy Nancy!

    donnagilley1st@gmail.com

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  2. Congrats Donna! Keep an eye on your e-mail for your FREEBIE!

    -Damien

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  3. I also have a Harry Potter themed classroom (http://charmingclassroom.blogspot.com/) and I love your character analysis idea! I'm so glad I found your blog! Thank you so much for sharing!

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