Characterisation

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Characterisation

• What does this term mean?

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Characterisation

• Characterisation is a word that describes how the
  author develops the personality of the story
  characters in a story.
• In most stories the characters seem to steer the
  events in a story, for a good writer will make
  characters behave in different ways.

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Today we are going to learn

• How characters are described in stories.
• How to create our own story characters.
• How we can show a characters personality in our
  own stories.

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Characterisation comes though what characters

• do

• say

Characters become real life breathing people to
our reader if we describe decisions they make,
what they say and how they say it. Sometimes a
writer will reveal also the thoughts which run
through a characters mind.
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Top Tips for creating characterisation.

• Tip One
• Use an unusual name. Use description,
  alliteration, nicknames.

Example Biscuits was too large for the t-shirt he
wore. Bits of him bulged out in unlikely places.
But he didnt seem to care. His round, red face
grinned at me. Hiyah! said Biscuits, thrusting
his pudgy hand our towards mine.
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Contrasting characters

• Tip Two
• A simple contrast is most effective. One
  character could be gentle, the other harsh.
• How do the characters in the text below contrast?

Example The Grabber stood blocking their way. Tom
hesitated, then turned on his heal and rushed
back up the corridor screaming. Victor picked up
the whalebone wand. He faced the Grabber and
without saying a word gazed deep into its eyes.
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Using what characters do.

• Tip Three
• We should be able to describe our characters
  feelings by what they do. Take care not to write
  over simplified sentences such as He was sad. He
  was angry.

Example Grandma gently took the box from its
secret place in the wardrobe. Immediately her
eyes began to prickle. She opened the lid
carefully and took in the familiar scent.
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Using what a character says.

• Tip Four
• Dialogue. To show fear h-h-hesitate, um, er.
• Show power, confidence. Begin sentences with
  imperative verbs (bossy verbs) Or I, I , I.
• Use synonyms for said.

Example The old king stood up and gazed around
the room. Everyone fell silent. I will not
wait, he roared. I must have porridge! And I
want it now!
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Your turn.

• Partner work.
• Tip One Create a name for your characters.
• Tip Two - Think of a contrast between your
  characters personalities.

Shy confident brave nervous bossy
gentle Angry sweet lonely
happy thoughtful stupid Clever
dick troublemaker bullying kind
sensitive
Now time to become actors. You need to assume the
characters name and personality.
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The plot

• You and your partner are cousins. You are in one
  of your homes, in the bedroom. The parents are
  downstairs.
• There is a creak from the room above,the attic.
  It should be empty. What will your characters do?

Use Tip three showing characterisation through
what your characters DO. Tip four showing
characterisation by what your characters SAY.
Use drama to act out the actions and dialogue of
your characters.
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The plot continued

• You are in the attic. It is very dusty, full of
  cobwebs, spiders etc. Its difficult to see as
  when you tried the light it flashed one and
  flickered out. You are surrounded by a mass of
  boxes and strange shaped objects draped in cloth.
  
• You hear a noise coming from the back of the room

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Lets write it!
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Can you remember the four top tips?

• Tip One Interesting names
• Tip Two Contrasting personalities
• Tip Three What your characters do
• Tip Four What your characters say

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Developing Characters

• Lesson 2

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What were our top tips for developing characters?

• Tip One Interesting names
• Tip Two Contrasting personalities
• Tip Three What your characters do
• Tip Four What your characters say

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Today we are going to learn

• Top Tip Number 5
• How to develop characterisation through showing
  our characters thoughts.

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Thinking about thoughts

• Example
• Mrs Cooper pursed her lips. She had had enough of
  Brians behaviour for one day. That boy ought to
  be taught a lesson. He had overstepped the mark
  once too often. And bullying was not something
  that Mrs Cooper was going to tolerate.

This shows how you can write down what is in our
character's mind. We also can have a characters
thoughts written down as though in speech - a
thought is our mind speaking to ourselves.
Oh no, shes in a strop again! Brian thought.
Shes really got it in for me these days.
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• In the following extract of text think about how
  or if, the writer has used any of the 5 top tips
  for characterisation.

Tip One Interesting names Tip Two Contrasting
personalities Tip Three What your characters
do Tip Four What your characters say Tip Five
What our characters think.
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Conkered!

• You dirty, rotten thief!
• Billy Wilson was really winding me up. I dont
  usually kick-off like that but he was slouching
  on the playground bench swinging MY prize conker
  back and forth, back and forth with a really
  irritating smirk on his face.
• Prove it Spud! snarled Billy.
• Thats me, Spud, A.K.A Edward King. Get it?
  Edward King King Edward. What were my parents
  thinking?
• All conkers look the same, dont they? he
  droned on.
• No they dont! Thats mine. Id recognise it
  anywhere.
• My Nan had given me he string for it. Shed found
  it in Grandpas old shed. It was old and yellow
  and waxy and she said it would never, ever snap.
  It was wrapped around an old tobacco tin, and as
  she unwound it, she looked sad with a far away
  look in her eyes.
• There you go, Edward lad, Thats championship
  string, that is. Your dad used it for his conkers
  too. She held the old tin to her nose before
  placing it gently back on the cobwebby shelf.

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• This all happened the day before the annual
  conker competition. Billy Wilson couldnt be
  bothered to find his own conkers, so hed stolen
  mine from my bag. He stole a lot of things, Billy
  did, and he couldnt be bothered to do anything
  much most of the time, including having a wash.
  Mum says its not his fault and its not
  surprising, considering.
• Considering what? Ive asked a thousand times.
• None of your business, she always says.
• I couldnt complain to the teachers about my
  stolen conker because we werent supposed to have
  them in school. Health and safety, or something.
  You can have an eye out with a conker,
  apparently!

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Did you spot any Top Tips?

• NAMES Who do you think were the main characters?
• CONRAST Were their personalities different?
• ACTIONS Did the author show the characters were
  different though their actions? (What they did)
• SPEECH Did the author show how the characters
  were different though what they said?
• THOUGHTS Do we know what Spud thinks about Billy?

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Drama time

• With a partner you are going to act out the story
  so far.
• We are going to freeze the action at different
  parts of the action.
• When I say freeze frame create a pose using your
  body, and a facial expression to show your
  feelings.
• I want you to think about your characters
  thoughts at that moment in the story.

Make a thought bubble to describe your
characters thoughts.
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Punctuating thoughts
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Flashback

• A flashback is where you go back in time to
  something that has happened in the past.
• Think about the character Billy Wilson.
• What in his life could have caused him to steal,
  become lazy and unwashed?
• What might Spuds mum have meant by, Its not
  surprising, considering.

Improvise a scene from the past that hints at why
Billy has become the character he is now.
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Lesson 3

• We are going to
• use drama to explore characters thoughts.
• use our top tips for characterisation in our own
  writing.
• Together we are going to write a recount,
  describing the day of one of the characters in
  the story we have been reading.

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What were our top tips for developing characters?

• Tip One Interesting names
• Tip Two Contrasting personalities
• Tip Three What your characters do
• Tip Four What your characters say
• Tip Five What your characters think.

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Who is Billy?

• We have been looking at a short story with two
  boys, Billy and Spud as the main characters.
• With your response partner talk for a few moments
  about the character of Billy.
• Is it fair to say that Billy is evil? What do you
  think?

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Why did Billy steal the conker?

• Now the class are going to think about what must
  have been going through Billys mind before he
  stole the Conker.
• Team 1.
• List all the reasons why Billy might think it was
  ok to steal.
• Team 2.
• List all the reasons why Billy might think he
  should not steal the conker.

Lets try out your ideas in a conscience
alley! Which team is most persuasive? Are there
any volunteers to be Billy?
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Inside Billys Brain
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Lets pretend that we are Billy.

• We are going to write an entry into Billys
  diary.
• Writing Targets
• We need to describe an event in Billys life.
  (Action) (Dialogue)
• Let the reader know how Billy feels about that
  day. (Thoughts)
• Reveal something about Billys character to our
  reader. (Personality)

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Your task To develop characters in our writing.

• Now Id like you to write another diary entry
  into Billys diary.
• What will you need to include to develop
  characterisation?
• Describe Billys personality through
• What Billy does
• What Billy says
• What Billy thinks.

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How do you feel about the character of Billy now?

• Do you feel sympathetic towards his situation?
• What do you want to happen next to the character?
• Can you remember the clue that the writer gave
  us, that suggested that there was more to Billy
  than Spud understood?

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Lesson 4 Developing CharactersTo use different
ways of planning stories

• Now its time to go back to our story.
• What has happened so far?
• What do you think is going to happen next?

Talk to your response partner.
How can we plot our story line in a different way?
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high
excitement level
Low
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The story continues

• Think about Spuds emotions in the following
  events.
• Following reading this segment of the story, we
  are going to then focus upon the character of
  Spud and describe the events from his point of
  view.

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Conkered continued!

• Anyway, there was nothing I could do. Billy is
  a big lad and Im not. So, I decided to go home
  to look for another conker.
• I went through the park and rummaged about
  underneath the conker trees. It didnt take me
  long to find an absolute beauty.I rubbed it on my
  trousers and polished it up into a glossy swirl
  of browns and golds. This would be a winner and
  Billy Wilson wouldnt be smirking tomorrow. I
  called at my Grans on the way home for some more
  string.
• Eh Edward lad, she said, you took the last
  of it yesterday. Its all gone. My heart sank.
  It was special string string that my dad had
  won competitions with. It would never, ever snap.
• Never mind Gran, I sighed. My Mumll have
  some. See you later!
• Sure enough Mum had something that would do the
  trick an old shoelace. First of all we followed
  the old recipe of soaking the conker in malt
  vinegar for exactly two minutes and baking in the
  oven at 250 degrees for one minute and thirty
  seconds. My dad drilled a hole though my conker
  with a sharp nail and threaded the shoelace
  though, making a big knot on the end so that it
  wouldnt come loose. I was disappointed not to
  have the traditional family string but I was
  still determined to beat Billy Wilson.

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• The next morning at playtime, we all gathered
  behind the school kitchens. The smell of cabbage
  was belching out of the extractor fan making
  school dinners seem even less tempting that
  usual. Everyone was comparing conkers and eyeing
  up the opposition. Marcus Jones was look-out. His
  parents wouldnt let him play conkers because
  they said competing with other children was bad
  for you. That must make the reset of us really
  bad because we were always challenging each other
  to dares and bets and daft races. Anyway, hed
  have to stand on a box hes so small.
• All clear! whispered Marcus.
• We paired up and tossed coins to see who would go
  first and then we were off.

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Hot seating

• What is Spud thinking?
• What questions would you ask Spud if your met him?

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To describe Character thoughts and
feelings.Spuds Diary

• Write a diary entry which reveals more of how
  Spud feels about the recent events.
• Include His reactions to what others say to him,
  do to him. The events

He felt sad that he could not get the string.
He found another conker
He thought about Billys reaction to the new
conker
His family helped him prepare the conker.
He tried to get some more string.
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To use drama to explore texts

• Today we are going to read the ending of our
  story.
• After we have completed reading the story we are
  going to think about acting out the story for
  someone else to watch.

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Conkered continued!

• I held out my conker, steadying the string it
  wouldnt move. Josh Walton drew back his conker,
  took aim and swung at mine. They crashed together
  and Josh was left with a piece of string with
  fragments of smashed conker clinging to the end.
• One-er! I announced. A long way to go yet,
  though.
• the competition continued until there were only
  two whole conkers left. We all stood there the
  ground covered with bits of smashed conker and
  discarded pieces of string. Billy Wilson and I
  faced each other both clutching six-ers because
  wed smashed six other conkers. I went first.
  Drawing back the beautiful conker, I took aim and
  swung. Just at the last minute, Billy pulled his
  conker out of the way.
• Foul! Foul! shouted Marcus. For someone who
  didnt compete , he had a pretty good grasp of
  the rules.
• Spud gets another go for that, he said.

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• Again.pull backaimswingCRASH! Both conkers
  were still in one piece. Billys turn.
• Look out, Spud-face, snarled Billy, youve
  got no chance. he looked at me straight in the
  eyes with that horrid smirk across his podgy
  face. He pulled grandpas special string slowly
  between his thumb and forefinger, challenging me
  to say it was mine. Placing one foot in front of
  the other and rocking to balance himself, Billy
  squared his shoulders, pulled back his conker,
  aimed and swung. The conker flew through the air
  across the playground, hitting the kitchen window
  with a crack. The string had snapped! Grandpas
  special, waxy, unsnappable string had snapped!
• Winner! yelled Marcus, trying to hold my arm
  up like a champ.
• Conkered! I shouted at Billy who had turned
  red and was clenching his fists.
• Detention! thundered Mr. Poskitt, the head
  teacher, as he stormed around the corner. Dont
  you boys realise, you could have your eye out
  playing conkers!

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The main events
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Performance

• Now imagine that you are going to turn the story
  into a performance for others to view.
• We need volunteers to play our main characters.
• The rest of you are going to act as the directors
  of the play.
• It is your job to direct the actors movements,
  speech.

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What have you learned this week in literacy?

• Talk to your response partner.
• Can you remember the 5 top tips for
  characterisation?