Go back to the time you met your best friend for the first time. What did you notice? As time went by and you’ve spent a lot of time with her or him, you got to know each other, and now you can probably predict how your best friend would react to certain situations. You know your best friend by heart that you even sometimes finish each other’s sentences.
In third grade, students are taught that when they begin a new book, they are given some new friends. Readers got to know the characters in the book the same way that they get to know a friend, taking notice of how the characters talk and act, discovering what they are like. This new reading unit in third grade is much more than identifying character and traits, the focus is as much on inference, synthesis, and close reading to grow ideas.
Here are some examples of how PNA’s third grade readers get to know their character, from observations to ideas.
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“Alice is gloomy because her Aunt Polly just died. Could it be that she was a special part of the family? Maybe she didn’t want her to die because then Alice couldn’t taste any more pies of her Aunt Polly. Also, Alice said that Polly was how the family came together.” (Book: Pie)
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“Percy Jackson is brave because he befriends a cyclops, because maybe the sea of monsters has traps like five pits and Tyson could carry Anebett and Percy on his hands. Maybe Percy Jackson befriends a cyclops who battles monsters from hell, because he is thinking about leaving camp to save one of his best friends from a giant cyclops.” (Book: Percy Jackson)
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“Freddy makes bad choices because he loves video games. Maybe because he just wants to be the first kid in second grade to reach Level 10. Or could it be that since every one in his class is playing the game, he doesn’t get left out?” (Book: Ready, Freddy)
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“My character is Geronimo Stilton. He is a worry wart. He does not like to travel so Thea and his cousins make fun of him. They say that he is a scaredy mouse. I think he does not like to travel because maybe he is not a big traveler.” (Book: Geronimo Stilton)
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This reading unit has just begun, but these third grade readers are already thinking critically, growing theories about a character, from their observations and textual evidence.
