Good morning John.
Thanks for the note. I went hunting for your stuff but all I've come across thus far is deleted content--which unfortunately I cannot access or address.
As far as lesson 3 is concerned, we are discussing dialogue tags. Those are speech tags (he said, she said) and action tags (he coughed, she laughed). The term, 'character tag' is a misnomer. It is not a tag. At least not as far as dialogue and this class is concerned. It is a term used for description that lends to characterization, and as such, has no bearing on this class. I mention this because I don't want you confusing the terms, or yourself.
As far your how-to information, you are correct in assuming that too many tags, of any kind, can be disruptive to the reading experience. Most significantly, overuse can overshadow the spoken word--which should be the star of the show. It can also negatively impact pacing. A happy medium is reached when you can read your passage aloud and; 1. not get confused about who is speaking at a given time, and 2. not verbally stumble.
In moving forward, I would appreciate if you would do the following: First, upload the lesson and reading sample related to the lesson and leave them active. Second, copy and paste links to the uploads in the corresponding forum so I don't have to go on a treasure hunt to find your work.