Shoe Charms Literary Analysis Character Activity for Any Novel | Text Evidence

This trendy activity gives students valuable practice with symbolism and textual evidence as they design shoe charms for characters in the books they read!

I don’t know about you, but whenever I ask my students to back up their answers with evidence from the text, I get overwhelmed stares as heads start to sink down to their desks. I tried and tried to figure out how to make textual evidence attainable and engaging for my kids, and I finally found a way that worked. Whether I liked it or not, I noticed that holey, plastic shoes were back in style, and my students were bedazzling them with charms to showcase their interests and personalities. I asked my students how the characters in their independent-reading books would charm their shoes, and I gave them a scaffolded planning sheet that guided the students to give reasons for their answers and provide support from their books. This time, everyone’s heads continued to bobble atop their shoulders! They actually took their charm-designing really seriously and found excellent quotes from their books to support their opinions.

Here's how the activity works:

First, students choose a color for their shoe, based on their character's temperament. (This color is loosely based on literary color symbolism.)

Next, students design four shoe charms that represent the character's interests, talents, values, or life events.

For the color and for each charm, students are required to explain why they chose it and to provide a quotation from their book that backs up their answer.

What's included?

• Teacher tips to get you started
• A shoe charm design page for students to draw their charms on
• A student planning sheet that guides students through the process of supporting their answers with evidence from the text

I hope your students enjoy this fun and creative activity! Let me know how it goes!

Distinguished English