Creating Characters: Narrative Writing

Creating Characters: Narrative Writing is a double lesson powerpoint which helps pupils create strong and believable characters in their creative writing. The first lesson encourages pupils to reflect on memorable fictional characters they already know and to consider what makes them so effective. It culminates in a character profile activity which asks pupils to select a character from a portrait gallery and write a detailed character profile of them. The second lesson introduces pupils to the principle of ‘show don’t tell’ and builds on their work in the first lesson. It culminates in an extended writing task which sets their character in motion completing an activity or speaking to another character. Finally, pupils peer assess each other’s work evaluating the extent to which their writing has absorbed teaching points from both lessons.

The double lesson can be taught as a stand-alone or integrated as part of a unit of work on narrative writing. It is intended for use in a Secondary School English lesson, for a KS3 audience (11-14 year-olds), but it could also be used at KS2. I delivered these lessons to Year 7 classes, however they would also be suitable for a low ability Year 8 group.

The lesson pack includes:

A 25-slide powerpoint with teaching material design to fill 2x hour-long classes.
Easy-to-follow slides with discussion prompts and learning objectives, lesson starters and plenaries.
1x printable worksheet for pupils to fill in (Character Profile)
Answers to all questions on slides and useful exemplars.