Large ELA Projects Series: Character Dinner Party

(Project Series Part 5: A Fully Developed Novel Project – Character Dinner Party)

In the last post, we shared several novel-based project ideas that can bring large projects in middle school ELA to life.

Now it’s time to take one of those ideas and build it out completely so you can see exactly what it looks like from start to finish.

Let’s walk through the Character Dinner Party project. This can be one of the most engaging and academically rich ways to assess characterization, and it is super fun as an end-of-year project.

If you’ve already read:

• Part 1: Classroom Setup
• Part 2: Timeline Planning
• Part 3: Organizing Materials
• Part 4: Novel Project Ideas

This post brings everything together into one fully structured example.

What Is the Character Dinner Party?

The Character Dinner Party is a culminating novel project where each student selects (or is assigned) one character and fully embodies that character during a structured class event.

What will students be responsible for?

They will…

• Develop a detailed character profile
• Analyze motivations, internal conflict, and relationships
• Trace character growth
• Dress and remain “in character” during discussion
• Defend their character’s decisions using textual evidence

It may look like a fun performance activity, and it is, but it is grounded in deep literary analysis because students cannot convincingly portray a character unless they understand the character really well.

They must know…

• How the character changes over time
• What motivates their decisions
• How they contribute to the theme
• How relationships influence growth
• What internal conflicts shape their choices

This project aligns directly with characterization standards across grades 6–8 and pairs beautifully with the characterization work embedded in our Standards-Based Units.

Note: There are several Reading Literature standards that focus on characterization, but the most obvious one is RL. 3. We have full units based around these standards for each grade level. Click on the grade level you’re working with below to see if this unit will be helpful to you as you work on characterization with your students!

Step 1: Deep Character Research

Before the event ever happens, students complete structured preparation.

Each student creates a comprehensive character profile that includes:

• Background and context
• Major conflicts (internal and external)
• Important relationships
• Motivations and decision-making patterns
• Evidence of growth (or stagnation)
• Key quotations with analysis

This phase ensures that performance is rooted in evidence rather than opinion.

If you’ve read our posts on How to Teach RL.3 or our broader breakdowns on teaching characterization standards, you already know how essential it is to move students beyond “describe the character” and into analysis of development and impact.

This research stage can be organized using:

• A printed project packet (as discussed in Part 3)
• A digital planning document
• A combination of both

Include at least one checkpoint (refer back to Part 2 of this series) to ensure students are gathering meaningful evidence before moving forward.

Step 2: Preparing for the Dinner Party

Once students understand their character deeply, they begin preparing for the actual dinner party discussion.

Students should:

• Anticipate discussion questions
• Prepare evidence-based responses
• Select quotations that they may reference
• Identify how their character would respond emotionally and intellectually

You might provide prompts such as:

• Do you regret your biggest decision?
• Who do you trust most in this room and why?
• What was your greatest internal conflict?
• How did your experiences shape your worldview?
• If you could rewrite one moment, what would it be?

Students should prepare notes, but they should not read from a script during the event. The goal is authentic, in-character thinking grounded in preparation.

This stage mirrors the type of analytical thinking we promote in our post Real-World ELA Projects: 20 Authentic Ways to Apply Middle School English Skills, where students must apply literary understanding in meaningful ways.

Step 3: The Dinner Party Event

On the day of the event you must prepare the following.

• The room is arranged in a way to allow students to move around and talk with one another, but also places for them to sit and chat with others.
• Established discussion norms. Consider going through this with students the day before the banquet.
• Snacks and drinks for students to enjoy as they move around, creating the perfect “banquet” experience.

During the discussion, students must:

• Respond as their character would
• Reference textual evidence naturally
• React thoughtfully to other characters
• Defend controversial decisions

One powerful variation is allowing characters from different novels to interact. This encourages cross-text theme comparison and pushes students to evaluate perspectives beyond a single story.

The structure you created in Part 1 (classroom setup) and the timeline checkpoints from Part 2 ensure this event feels organized, not chaotic.

OPTIONAL: Ask students to dress up as their characters. This adds something really special to the activity, and it is a whole lot of fun to see how the students interpret their character’s style based on the textual evidence.

Assessment & Deliverables

A major part of the assessment of this project is your observations as a teacher and a “ghost” at the event. Your job is to hover around and watch/note the interactions taking place during the event.

In addition to the day-of-event assessment, you’ll also have some required deliverables that students will prepare.

1. A completed character profile with textual evidence
2. A post-event written reflection

Reflection questions might include:

• How accurately did you portray your character?
• What evidence did you rely on most?
• How did interacting with other characters deepen your understanding of the theme?
• What did this experience teach you about characterization?

This reflection reinforces accountability and ensures students translate performance into academic understanding.

How This Connects to Standards-Based Instruction

One of the reasons this project works so well is that it directly aligns with the characterization standards embedded in our Standards-Based Unit Bundles for grades 6–8.

Many of our units already include performance tasks that require students to analyze character development. The Character Dinner Party can serve as:

• An end-of-the-year celebration and assessment combo
• A culminating extension project
• An alternative assessment for advanced learners
• Or a capstone project at the end of a novel

Because the analytical groundwork is already built into the unit, this project becomes a natural next step rather than an add-on.

Why This Project Works

The Character Dinner Party blends:

• Performance
• Analysis
• Textual evidence
• Creativity
• Critical thinking

Students move beyond summary and into interpretation. They must internalize a character’s perspective and defend it in real time.

When paired with:

• Strong classroom systems (Part 1)
• Flexible timelines and checkpoints (Part 2)
• Organized materials and packets (Part 3)

This project becomes not only engaging but manageable.

Final Thoughts

If you’re going to implement one large novel-based project next year, this is an excellent place to start.

Because it’s memorable.

Because it’s rigorous.

Because it’s standards-aligned.

And it deepens students’ understanding of characterization in a way traditional essays often do not.

Enjoy this one!!