*Envision themselves as the character so they can experience the story as the character does. They should make a mental movie in their minds. As they read on, readers often need to revise their mental movie based on details that are added throughout the text.
*Empathize with the character by remembering times in their lives when they experienced something similar. For example, in our read aloud "Because of Winn Dixie," the main character, India Opal tries to convince her father to keep the dog she found. Readers can better understand what India Opal is going through if they remember a time when they tried to convince a parent that they should be able to do something.
*Predict what a character might do and how they might do it based on their knowledge of the character from earlier in the book.
Talk to your child about the book they are reading and the characters they are envisioning. It would also be great to talk to your third grader about a book that you are reading. They may be surprised to hear that you think about characters in your books the same way!
Happy reading!