Characterisation is where literary analysis becomes real for students. Once a Class 9 or Class 10 reader can explain how a writer builds a character – and not merely retell what the character does – they are ready for the analytical demands of the CBSE Board Examinations. This scheme of work maps a coherent six-week arc for teaching characterisation and fiction analysis, in keeping with the competency-based direction of NEP 2020 and the NCERT English readers your students already use. It sets out how many lessons, the learning arc, the key tasks, and exactly where assessment fits.
The learning arc at a glance
Think of the unit as three stages: noticing, analysing, then evaluating. Students first learn to spot the tools a writer uses, then explain their effect, and finally judge how successfully a character is drawn. A resource such as Characterisation and Analysing Fiction provides the graded tasks to move students up this ladder without you building every worksheet from scratch.
Weeks one and two: noticing the toolkit
Begin with direct and indirect characterisation. Using a story from the NCERT reader, show how an author reveals personality through speech, action, appearance, thought and the reactions of others – the classic “STEAL” lens. Key tasks:
- Annotate a single page, colour-coding each method the writer uses.
- Convert a “telling” sentence (“he was greedy”) into a “showing” paragraph.
- Build a character-evidence grid: trait, quotation, method, effect.
- Write a paragraph explaining one trait using the grid.
Weeks three and four: analysing effect
Now push from identification to explanation. Students practise the point–evidence–explanation structure that CBSE question-paper design rewards, always answering “why does the writer make this choice?” Track how a character changes across the text, and introduce comparison – a protagonist against a foil. This is the stage to embed subject vocabulary: motivation, foil, archetype, dynamic and static characters. Analytical writing about people transfers naturally to analytical writing about arguments, so a bridge into Writing a Comment and Argumentative Essay here strengthens the reasoning students will need across the whole English paper.
Weeks five and six: evaluating and assessing
In the final stage students form and defend a judgement: is this character convincing, sympathetic, or a vehicle for the writer's theme? Because writers characterise through the language of persuasion and rhetoric too, a short detour through Analysing Political Speeches – Rhetoric and Stylistic Devices sharpens students' ear for how tone and diction shape our view of a speaker or a character alike.
Where assessment fits
- Formative, ongoing: weekly PEE paragraphs and evidence grids, marked lightly with one improvement target each.
- Mid-unit check: a short extract-based analysis mirroring the reading section of the board paper.
- Summative, end of unit: an extended response – “How does the writer make [character] memorable?” – marked against a competency rubric.
- Peer assessment: students swap and identify each other's strongest point-evidence-explanation link.
Keeping it competency-based
NEP 2020 asks us to move students beyond rote recall of “character sketches” towards genuine analysis. Every task here demands application, not memorisation, and the final assessment cannot be answered from a guide book. If you keep the arc – notice, analyse, evaluate – your Class 9 and Class 10 students will walk into the board examination able to write with confidence about how fiction actually works.
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