Explore Character Archetypes with Your Students

Character archetypes are common character types that reappear in stories. Authors use them to help readers quickly understand a character’s role in the story. Understanding a character archetype is a powerful way to help students recognize patterns in stories, improve their comprehension and develop a deeper appreciation for literature. 

This comprehensive 27-slide teaching presentation has been created by our team to introduce your students to ten of the most common character archetypes found in children’s literature. Each archetype is explained with clear examples, relatable visuals and discussion prompts to spark curiosity and comprehension.

The story archetypes included in this presentation are:

• The Hero
• The Mentor
• The Magical Helper
• The Villain
• The Trickster
• The Innocent
• The Adventurer
• The Loyal Sidekick
• The Ruler or Leader
• The Outsider

This resource is an easy-to-use tool that teachers can use to spark lively classroom discussions and model analysis of literary characters. It downloads as a Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides file.

Read on to learn how to maximize the potential of this teaching tool in your classroom!

Activities for Exploring Archetype Character Examples

This slide deck provides a solid foundation for introducing your students to archetype characters. Once students have explored the slides, you can extend their learning with a range of simple but effective activities. Here are some ideas from our team to get you started:

• Archetype Brainstorm – Have students brainstorm examples of characters from literature that fit each archetype. Compile their ideas into colorful anchor charts to display in the classroom as a quick reference guide during reading and writing lessons.
• Character Comparisons – Choose two characters of the same archetype, but found in texts written in different countries, time periods or genres (e.g. a hero in a fairy tale vs a hero in a dystopian fiction). Guide students to compare how the same archetype appears across these different contexts.
• Combining Archetypes – Combine character archetypes like The Hero, The Adventurer or The Leader with related plot archetypes like The Quest, Overcoming the Monster or Rags to Riches, then have the students use these to inspire their independent writing.

Download to Teach Different Character Archetypes

Use the dropdown menu on the Download button to access your preferred version of this different character archetypes teaching presentation. (Note: You will be prompted to make a copy of the Google Slides presentation before accessing it.)

You now have everything you need to deliver a high-quality lesson about character archetypes with minimal preparation time!

This resource was created by Kaylyn Chupp, a teacher in Florida and a Teach Starter collaborator.

Complement This Archetype Characters Resource

Looking for more time-saving materials to use in your literature unit? Click below to browse more curriculum-aligned, teacher-created resources from the Teach Starter team.

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