Character Analysis Tools

The lenses and worksheets for Narrative Crossroads.

The Three Lenses

Narrative Crossroads is a solo journaling game played by everyone at once. A student inhabits a character at a threshold moment, takes one of three lenses, and writes a few sentences in character. The lenses are three ways of reading one moment — not skills, not stats, and nothing is ever rolled against them.

Lens Read the moment as… The question it asks
Confrontation A clash What are you up against, and what does facing it cost?
Comprehension A realization What do you understand now that you didn’t a moment ago?
Connection The bonds Who is this really about, and what do you owe them?

Three students at the same moment, holding different lenses, will write three different things. That difference is the point — it is what the discussion afterward is made of.

The Round

1. Same character, same moment

Everyone works from the same character at the same threshold moment. Nobody is competing, and nobody is waiting for a turn.

2. Take a lens

Students pick a lens, or roll a die to spread the room:

Roll Lens
1–2 Confrontation
3–4 Comprehension
5–6 Connection

The die only seeds. It decides which way in you get; it never decides how anything turns out. There is nothing to succeed or fail at.

3. Write in character

A few sentences, in the character’s voice, at that moment. The writing is the play — not a record of play that happened somewhere else.

4. Harvest

Read several aloud, at least one from each lens. Then ask the question that does the analytical work:

Which reading does the text support, and what’s your evidence?

The pooled readings are the discussion. Students are not defending a score; they are defending an interpretation against the text.

Character Frame Worksheet

For students to complete before writing.

The boxes below are the same ones on the printable Character Frame Card — print that if you want them on paper. Two evidence boxes, a lens, and room to write.

Character: _______________

Text: _______________

The Moment: _______________

Evidence

Wants — What does this character want right now?

_________________________________________________________________

Evidence (line / page): ______________

Fears — What are they afraid of?

_________________________________________________________________

Evidence (line / page): ______________

Your Lens

Circle one, or roll a die — it only chooses your way in.

Lens   The question it asks
Confrontation (1–2) What are you facing, and what will it cost you?
Comprehension (3–4) What do you understand now that you didn’t before?
Connection (5–6) Who is this about, and what do you owe them?

Write in Character

A few sentences, in their voice, at this moment — show one thing from a box above.

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Reflection Prompts

After the harvest, students reflect:

Comparison

  • How did your reading compare to what the character actually does in the text?
  • Why do you think the author made different choices?

Discovery

  • What did writing in character reveal that you hadn’t considered?
  • What surprised you in someone else’s reading of the same moment?

Evidence

  • What textual evidence supports your interpretation?
  • What evidence might challenge your reading?

Lens

  • How would the moment have read through a different lens?
  • Which lens does the text itself seem to favor, and why?

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