Mini-Lesson

Character Traits

Grades 4-6

Objective: Students discuss character traits to people introduced in a news article, and give examples to support their thinking.

1. Today's timeforkids.com news story Race to the Finish is about the 2009 New York City Marathon. Use this article to do a mini lesson on character traits.

2. After reading the article, have students brainstorm a list of character traits that could be used to describe marathon winners Meb Keflezighi and Derartu Tulu. As students contribute ideas to the list, have them explain their choices based on the information in the article. Point out that even though the story does not use these words to describe the runners, we can make good guesses about what the people are like based upon the quotes and other information included in the story. When we do this, we are making an inference.

3. Review the lists. Ask students to choose what they think are the best words to describe the two marathon winners.

Interactive Whiteboard Connection Use your interactive whiteboard to view the New York City Marathon slide show , and continue your discussion about character traits.