Margin Notes

In her book, When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do, Kylene Beers introduces several strategies to support the exploration of character development, one of which is ABC Boxes. These ABC Boxes can be used as post-reading scaffolds, facilitating discussions on character growth throughout a story. Students who understand character development are better equipped to recognize themes, because character arcs often embody the central ideas and messages of a story. As characters face challenges, make decisions, and grow, their experiences and transformations illuminate the underlying themes. For instance, a character’s journey from isolation to connection can highlight themes of friendship and belonging. By analyzing how and why characters change, students can identify the broader messages the author is conveying.

ABC Boxes are a great way for supporting readers to notice and track how characters change. Students compare and contrast two characters by choosing words that describe the characters challenges, choices, experiences and transformations using different colored ink for each character. Beers illustrates this concept using an example from Lisa Fipps’s novel in verse, “Starfish,” where a student employed ABC Boxes to compare and contrast character development of two characters. Additionally, I used the blank template provided in the Appendices to complete my own comparative analysis of two characters from Fipps’s latest work, “And Then, Boom!”

Try this tomorrow!