The Tale of Despereaux Characters: Who's Who

Tale of Despereaux Character Map

Activity Overview

By creating a character map, students are able to visualize the characters in the story, paying close attention to the physical traits, character traits, enemies, and friends of both major and minor characters. This is particularly helpful in understanding how the characters connect with one another and how their relationships impact the plot.

Characters included in the character map are:

Despereaux
Princess Pea
The King
The Queen
Miggery Sow
Gregory
Roscuro
Botticelli
The Cook
Furlough
Lester
Hovis

Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 4-5

Difficulty Level 3 (Developing to Mastery)

Type of Assignment Individual or Partner

Type of Activity: Character Map

Common Core Standards

[ELA-Literacy/RL/4/3] Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).

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Template and Class Instructions

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Student Instructions

Create a character map for the major characters.

Identify the major characters in The Tale of Despereaux and type their names into the different title boxes.
Choose a Storyboard That character to represent each of the literary characters.

Select colors and a pose appropriate to story and character traits.

Choose a scene or background that makes sense for the character.
Fill in the Textables for Physical Appearance, Traits, Enemies, and Friends.
Save and submit the assignment.

Template: Character Map

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Rubric

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Character Map Template

Create a character map of the characters in the story. Put the character's name in the title boxes and choose a character and scene to represent each one. As you read, take notes on the characters by answering the questions.

	Proficient 33 Points	Emerging 25 Points	Beginning 17 Points
Character Picture & Scene	The characters and scenes are both appropriate for the book's characters.	Many of the characters and scenes match the book's characters.	More than half of the characters and scenes do not match the characters in the book.
Accuracy of Notes	Most of the information of the notes is correct.	Many of the notes have correct information, but some are incorrect or missing.	Less than half of the information of the notes is correct and relevant.
Effort	Work is complete, thorough, and neat.	Most of the sections of the character map were at least attempted and work is presentable.	Character map is unfinished and/or disorganized.