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The question of whether Mr. Rittenhouse’s actions were crimes or legal acts may hinge on jurors’ understanding of self-defense law. Wisconsin law generally allows a person to shoot in self-defense if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to avoid being killed or badly hurt. Jurors will get instructions on how to parse that law, including how to consider whether Mr. Rittenhouse acted reasonably, but legal observers said the issue sometimes comes down to jurors’ personal views.

The jurors will be asked to vet the series of events that took place that night — with each charge attached to a separate episode.

Mr. Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree reckless homicide for the killing of Mr. Rosenbaum. The most serious charge he faces, first-degree intentional homicide, is connected to the fatal shooting of Mr. Huber. And Mr. Rittenhouse is charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for shooting Mr. Grosskreutz.

Mr. Rittenhouse also faces two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety: One for shooting at but missing an unidentified man who was captured on video kicking Mr. Rittenhouse, and the other related to a videographer who thought at first that he had been shot, but was not. Finally, Mr. Rittenhouse, who is now 18, faces a misdemeanor charge of illegally possessing the gun.

After the lawyers debated what instructions should be presented to jurors, Judge Schroeder did not make his decisions official, but indicated that he would let jurors consider charges less serious than various original counts. On the first-degree intentional homicide count, the judge said he was likely to let jurors consider second-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide — both less serious charges.

Legal experts said a second-degree intentional homicide charge, for instance, would allow jurors to consider whether they found Mr. Rittenhouse’s assertion that he was in danger to be sincere but not reasonable.

As the discussion between the lawyers of possible instructions to jurors ended on Friday, Judge Schroeder explained the details of the law to Mr. Rittenhouse himself.