What is a Character Trait?

A character trait is a quality that a person or character in a story has that helps define who they are. These traits can be outwardly visible, a.k.a. physical traits or they can be internal traits that reflect a moral or emotional state. A character can have more than one character trait, but often a single trait will show up throughout their entire personality.

Analyse Characters with the Help of a Free Character Traits List

Having a knowledge of different character traits allow students to know what a character is like based on their personality, appearance, speech and actions. This list contains over 70 useful character traits to help students learn how to describe characters and make inferences about those characters based on their actions.

This product is an awesome resource for students to use when learning to describe characters in stories and analyse their actions to make inferences.

Scaffolding + Extension Tips 

While this resource is usable just as it is, you might need to modify the character trait list to better meet the vocabulary needs of your students. For this, we recommend downloading the editable Google Slides version of the resource so that you can make those changes as needed.

Additionally, students who need more support with these concepts would benefit from completing this worksheet in a 1:1 setting or small group arrangement. It would also prove useful to have students keep a copy of this resource in their reading or writing notebook or use the content to create a character traits anchor chart to display in the classroom.

How to Prepare This Free List of Character Traits

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource. Make your copies and you are ready to teach!