First Grade: Developing a Character

By: Christy Sexton

Francis the Scaredy Cat

by Ed Boxall

Mentor Text: Francis the Scaredy Cat by Ed Boxall, is a story about a cat named Francis, who is aftraid of the dark. In this book, Boxall does a wonderful job at developing the main character, Francis. At the beginning of the book, Boxall describes the activities that Francis likes to do, and the things that he is interested in. The reader is able to get a good idea of who Francis is. Then, Boxall goes on to talk about Francis's problem. Francis is aftraid of the dark. After Boxall has described Francis, he goes on to talk about what happened to Francis on one particular night. It is a wonderful story, that I have personally read with first graders. They absolutely loved it.

Purpose: I chose to use the book Francis the Scaredy Cat, because Ed Boxall did such a wonderful job at developing the main character. When children are first learning to write, they need to see good models of how a writer develops a strong character. In this book, the first seven pages are dedicated to developing the main character, Francis.

About the Author: Ed Boxall writes and illustrates children's books. He has had five books published by walker books. Three of his books include, Mr. Trim and Miss Jumble, Scoot on Top of the World, and Francis the Scaredy Cat. Boxall always knew that he wanted to be an artist, and grew up to study art at Saint Martin's College of Art in London. Boxall says, "I got the idea for Francis the Scaredy Cat from looking back to my childhood and remembering that I felt I was a little bit different from everyone else."

Academic Content Standards:

Writing Process Standard

Benchmarks:

A. Generate ideas for written compositions.

D. Use revision strategies and resources to improve ideas and content, organization, word choice and detail.

First Grade, Writing Processes Indicators:

1. Generate writing ideas through discussions with others.

2. Develop a main idea for writing.

4. Use organization strategies to plan writing.

10. Add descriptive words and details.

Writing Applications Standard

Benchmarks:

A. Compose writings that convey a clear message and include well chosen details.

First Grade, Writing Applications Indicators:

1. Write simple stories with a begining, middle and end that include descriptive words and details.

Lesson Plans:

1. The teacher will read the book Francis the Scaredy Cat by Ed Boxall.

2. After reading the book, the teacher will create a chart that describes the character, Francis. After the chart is created, the teacher is able to point out all of the characteristics that Ed Boxall used to develop the character Francis.

3. Next, the teacher will do an interactive or shared writing with the students. In this writing, the students are going to create their own character, and write a story about it. Before writing the story, the teacher should lead the students in creating a Character Fact Sheet. The Character Fact Sheet will allow the students to create a detailed character sketch, before writing the story.

4. Once the character has been developed, the teacher can begin interactively writing the story.