Read it, Write it, Tell it Head 11
Read it, Write it, Tell it Head 11 Home Introduction Teaching Materials Grades 3-4 Grades 5-7 Links Videos Read it, Write it, Tell it Head 11 Read it, Write it, Tell it Head 11

 

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Point of View Lessons

Grades 3-4
Grades 5-7

 

 

 Extension Activities

Point of View • Online Resources

Ohio Instructional Management System

“Establishing a Point of View in Narratives - Grade Four”

  • Establishing point of view is a new concept for fourth grade students. This lesson introduces and develops the concept and gives students the opportunity to both identify and to construct point of view in narratives. Additionally, students practice identifying and sequencing main events.

“What's My Point - Grade Six”

  • This lesson develops student understanding of persuasion. Students move through the process of defining persuasion, identifying persuasive arguments and techniques in writing and evaluating their own use of accurate details. Students also define an author’s point of view. 

Ohio Resource Center • Reading

  • http://www.ohiorc.org/search
  • Scroll to the box that says "I know the ORC resource I want to see," enter the ORC Lesson number, and click "View Resource".

“Cross-cultural Dialogue,” Grades 7-10

  • ORC Lesson# 1319
  • Cross-cultural Dialogue uses two personal narratives, written by a beginning English teacher in an unfamiliar culture, to teach point of view. Students read two narratives, first from the teacher's point of view and then from what she imagines to be her students' point of view.

Other Online Resources   

“Critical Literacy: Point of View,” Grades 6-8

  • http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=23
  • Many students read without questioning a text or analyzing the author's viewpoint. This lesson encourages sixth- through eighth-grade students to question what they are reading by providing them with the language and skills needed to analyze a text. Students learn to look at the author's purpose and viewpoint, and also recognize gaps in the text. Extension activities include debating a fairy tale using different character viewpoints.

“Teaching Point of View with Two Bad Ants,” Grades 3-5

  • http://readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=789
  • This lesson provides students with the opportunity to use illustrations and text to develop an understanding of the point of view of the characters. Students read the story Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg, work in pairs to analyze the illustrations and text, and compare and contrast points of view. Finally, they reread the story, applying their knowledge of point of view.

“Teaching Voice with Anthony Browne’s Voices in the Park,” Grades 6-8

  • The concept of voice is often difficult for middle school students to incorporate into their writing. This lesson, aimed at grades 6-8 but easily applicable to any level, provides a clear example of an author who created four specific voices. By reading and discussing the characters in Anthony Browne's picture book, Voices in the Park, students will gain a clear understanding of how to use voice in their own writing.

Matson, Nancy. “Point of View in Literature and Unreliable Narrators with The Boy Trap” Grades 3-5

  • http://www.nancymatson.com/BTLP1.HTM
  • This lesson serves to improve kids' reading and critical thinking skills by asking them to identify ways to determine someone's point of view without the characters expressing their views outright. It also introduces them to the idea of an unreliable narrator, and gives them a chance to develop critical thinking skills on the nature of prejudice.

“Seeing Integration from Different Viewpoints,” Grades 6-8 http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=816

  • This lesson uses The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, which describes the court-ordered desegregation of an all-white school in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1960, as a basis for a Directed Reading–Thinking Activity. A pre-reading strategy captures students' interest using a question and a during-reading strategy focuses their attention on key ideas. Finally, a post-reading group activity called The Five Decision Lenses, (adapted from Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono, Back Bay Books, 1999) uses colored glasses to encourage students to view court-ordered desegregation from different perspectives.

“Poems that Tell a Story: Narrative and Persona in the Poetry of Robert Frost,” Grades 6-8 http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=345

  • Students explore such questions and mysteries in journal entries that build upon narrative hints in poems chosen from an online selection of Frost's most frequently anthologized and taught works. By analyzing what a speaker (or persona) in one of Frost's poems includes or omits from his narrative account, students make inferences about that speaker's motivations and character, find evidence for those inferences in the words of the poem, and apply their inferences about the speaker in a dramatic reading performed for other class members.

“The Eye of the Beholder: Point of View”

  • http://staff.fcps.net/tcarr/shortstory/plot1.htm#Eye
  • To examine how point of view affects the development of the short story, choose from the following activities.
    • Activity 1: Review the different types of point of view.
    • Activity 2: In this activity, users will take a given scenario and rewrite it showing different points of view.

“Thanksgiving: A Turkey's Point of View” by Laura Beeler, Grades 3-5

“School Uniforms: Point of View Writing” Grade 7

“Local Historians” http://www.storyarts.org/lessonplans/lessonideas/

  • Choose “Local Historians” from the list of lesson ideas that appear on the web page
  • Have students collect stories about their town from older people. Have students find out how the streets were named. Are there any interesting people or legends to which the street names refer? Are there any local places in town about which people tell stories? Any haunted houses? Have students find out when the town was founded and by whom? Visit a local historical society to see old photographs or artifacts.
  • Have students create an original historical fiction: Describe the town from the point of view of a fictitious citizen who might have lived in the town long ago. Include local issues of the time in the story. Tell the story of the town from the fictionalized point of view of a resident who actually lived.