An Easy, Researched Backed, Way to Teach Character Traits

Character traits are SO hard for students to identify. Especially students struggling with reading. We get a lot of they were "good" or "bad". Identifying them can also be hard for students with limited vocabulary. 

When we want to talk about character traits we love to use this strategy! It comes from Jan Richardson and Manyak's schoolwide vocabulary approach. Even though it's a schoolwide approach, we've found that it works great for our intervention students. 


We have a great list of grade/age appropriate character trait words. It's leveled from kindergarten to sixth grade. On our sheet we placed easier to harder as the label to not discourage our students. 

The students look through the list too pick a word that describes the character. 

Once they decide on a word (and we do a lot of teaching vocabulary as we go through the list) they must find the proof, or evidence, of that word describing the character. 

​We use this graphic organizer to record our words and proof. It helps not only teach character traits, but also a whole list of words that describe the characters (that students may or may not know!).

Click HERE for a FREE copy of this great Character Trait Chart so you can start using it in your classroom! There are two versions of the chart. The first version has words from kindergarten/first grade to third and fourth grade. The second version, a little tougher, has words all the way up until 6th grade.