Says Who?

A Lesson in Point of View

Lauren Johnson

Objectives: Seventh Grade

North Carolina State Standards:

Competency Goal 4 - The learner will refine critical thinking skills and create criteria to evaluate text and multimedia.

Ÿ 4.03 - considering and presenting alternative points of view or reasons

Competency Goal 5 - The learner will respond to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative processes.

Ÿ 5.01 - analyzing the effects of such elements as plot, theme, point of view, characterization, mood, and style.

NCTE/IRA Standards:

Standard 11: Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Purpose:

In this lesson, students will learn how important point of view is while reading various types of genres. The point of view the author chooses to write in makes a huge impact on the reader. Students will learn that authors may choose to write in a particular point of view to convey a specific message or to persuade the reader to believe a certain way about a character or event. In this mini lesson, students will explore at least two points of view while reading familiar stories (picture books). The book, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, will be read to the students. This book is from the point of view of the wolf from the original story The Three Little Pigs. This book clearly shows the importance of point of view in a story as it shows the impact it has on a reader’s interpretation and feeling about the story afterwards. Students are then instructed to write their own points of view from other familiar stories. This activity engages students in a creative writing process and allows them to experience, first hand, the importance of how point of view affects readers.

Materials:

Ÿ The book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (or a similar spin-off of familiar stories or fairy tales, anything told from an atypical point of view)

Ÿ Other familiar story books or fairy tales (Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, etc.)

Time Needed:

35-45 minutes

Script:

Today students, we are going to take a look at point of view and its importance. First, who can define point of view for me? (Allow students to answer and make suggestions). Tell students that point of view is the narrarator’s interpretation in a sense. Let’s say there was an unfortunate fight in the gym this morning. Now depending on who you ask, you may get two opposing explanations of what really happened. When we refer to point of view in writing, this means that there can be as many different versions of the story as there are people in it. That’s what makes selecting who tells a story one of the most important decisions an author can make. Why do you think this is true? (Allow students to respond). Essentially, the point of view the story (or news article, magazine article, etc.) is told in, can either be taken as fact or opinion, but overall, point of view can totally affect how we as readers respond to the story. Just as if there was a fight in the gym this morning, I bet you would want to hear both sides of the story so that you could make your own decision as to which point of view to believe. The same goes for books or news articles we read. Whatever point of view they are written in will affect how we as readers feel about the characters or events involved. (Introduce book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and read aloud to students, reminding them or perhaps reading the original story of the three little pigs beforehand). Now, after reading this book, we can see that the wolf obviously has a much different story than the little pigs do. The point of view this book is written in is different. How does it make you feel towards the wolf? Towards the three little pigs?

Now it’s your turn. I am going to put you into groups and hand each group a book that you are all probably familiar with. You should take a moment and elect one person to read the book aloud. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs was written from the Wolf’s point of view, which made it interesting because we have never heard from the wolf before now! It’s your job, as a group, to write a story about the book I handed you - but you must write your story in a different point of view than the original. Be prepared to share your group’s story with the class. Remember, be creative! (Give students enough time to write a brief story about their book, about 25 minutes - more time if needed. One recorder is needed to write the story; one person reads the story aloud afterwards. Create groups ahead of time as to which students will work best together; assign groups accordingly).

(Take time to share stories with the class). To wrap up, who can tell me the importance of point of view? (Allow students to respond) As we have seen from reading our books and writing in alternate points of view, the point of view of a story is extremely important, as it helps us as readers to determine which side of a story is more believable. Also, using different points of view can greatly impact how we feel toward a character or event in a story. Authors may choose to write in certain points of view to convey certain messages or simply to show the other characters’ side of the story. (Explain to students that the importance of this activity was to consider other’s points of view, especially while reading. As readers and human beings, we will always connect to certain characters of a book; however, it is important to consider the “other” character’s perspective. How does he or she feel about what is happening? This activity helps us as readers to have a more open mind while reading a book or any kind of text. Also, more writing develops better writers. The more we, as writers, write, the better readers we become, as reading and writing are connected.) Does anyone have any questions about point of view?