TRY THIS TOMORROW: THERMOMETER CHECKS
This idea comes from the resource 100% Engagement: 33 Lessons to Promote Participation, Beat Boredom, and Deepen Learning in the ELA Classroom by Brian Sztabnik and Susan Barber. The goal is to spark authentic engagement, thoughtful discussion, and meaningful collaboration that deepen students’ reading, writing, and thinking skills.
Thermometer Checks, inspired by Tim Averill, invites students to track a character’s emotional state over time by literally plotting a temperature check graph. This allows students to visualize character development and connect textual evidence to these shifts.
Here are some images of what that might look like:
Here is how it works:
- Set up the axes: The x-axis moves chronologically through the story or section; the y-axis represents the character’s mental health or emotional well-being.
- Gather evidence: As students read in groups, they collect textual evidence (on sticky notes, annotations, or a shared document) highlighting key moments that reveal the character’s mindset.
- Plot and justify: Students plot data points showing where they think the character “is” emotionally at various moments. Each point must be supported with a direct quote or paraphrased textual evidence.
- Analyze and discuss: Once the graph is complete, students step back to interpret patterns. Where do emotions spike or drop? What causes these shifts? How do they shape the character’s motivations, choices, or relationships?
The goal is to have students increase awareness of how characters change and grow while using inferring skills to see the subtleties that are not stated outright. The lesson ends with a description of the engagement and says this:
This lesson engages students because they visually notice that the progression isn’t so direct. Characters, like us, fluctuate all the time. They respond and react to the events of life in positive and negative ways. It is a great way to get every student to see characters beyond their superficial facades and allow them to plunge into the depths of those characters’ complexity.