Character Motivation

Character Motivation was one of those things teachers felt wasn't necessarily hard but that the kids had trouble writing about it in their reading notebooks.  Students would say they were motivated but not necessarily why.  Whenever this happens, as a CLT we come together to think about the concept/strategy.  We define and then practice writing entries with evidence and higher level thinking.  We defined motivations as the reasons a character does something or behaves a certain way.  Then we thought about what are the big reasons characters behave the way they do.  We made a list. We reflected on some favorite read alouds/main character/their motivation.  Then we try it out in entry format. 

(5th grade)

(4th grade)

(4th grade)