This post originally appeared on the blog Teaching With a Mountain View.
We have been busy working on point of view, and most specifically, on how an author’s point of view impacts how a story is written or told. I loved some of the activities we did, and I’m excited to share them with you!
We started the unit by creating an anchor chart together. (Are you shocked!?)
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| Point of View Anchor Chart |
My students had an idea of what point of view was, but they needed to solidify their understanding of the types of third person point of view and well as second person point of view. We have referenced this chart (and the foldable they made) SO.MUCH. during this unit.
Then, we did one of my favorite activities of the unit! I grabbed pictures off of the internet (I can’t share them here because they weren’t public domain. I typed in things like “learning to ride a bike” and “scored a soccer goal.”) and glued them each to a piece of large construction paper. I separated the page into five different sections. Perspectives, First Person Point of View, and then the three types of Third Person point of view.
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| Point of View activity with pictures! |
We talked about how similar perspective and point of view are, but that they are still a little bit different. The students got into pairs and were assigned one of the pictures. The first round, they wrote all the different perspectives that were possible in the picture. Then they rotated to a new picture, and they all wrote a brief narrative of what was happening in the picture in first person point of view using one of the perspectives they had identified. We rotated around until they all had practice writing in each of the points of view. The students truly enjoyed this point of view activity, and it was a good way to help them see the difference between perspective and point of view.
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| This was a favorite picture for my students. There were some great perspectives here, and they had fun with it. |
Then, I did some work with small groups. We used a short (53 second) clip from Toy Story (You can see it on YouTube HERE). We watched it several times, and we discussed the different perspectives that each of the main characters in the clip had. Then we did some more writing, and we rewrote the scene in first and third person. For kids who were still struggling, instead of generating the words, I quickly wrote paragraphs for them to identify the correct point of view and perspective. It was an easy way to differentiate, and it helped drive home some ideas about how different points of view and different perspectives can have an effect on how a story is told.
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| Using Toy Story to teach Point of View & Perspective |
You can download the differentiated pages for free HERE. You’ll need to watch the clip with your class in order the use them.
We had a 20 minute block of time to use some task cards, so I pulled out my Point of View Task Cards, and we got busy! We actually used them with board games, and the kids had a blast. You can read about how I used board games with task cards over at my Task Card blog post, but here is a look at the task cards. They are differentiated, and you can use them for different proficiency levels, or for scaffolding. One set includes simple sentences, another includes paragraphs, and the last set includes types of writing, and students must identify the point of view from which it is most likely written. Each group turned in a recording sheet, so it was an easy way to assess where they stood. These cards generated some great discussion in class!You can purchase the Differentiated Point of View Task Cards at my TpT store HERE.
Finally, we are still working on an assessment. The students each selected a “meaty”picture book. They read it, and now they’re doing some analysis of the narrator, the point of view that the narrator wrote from, and how the book would be different from a different character’s point of view.
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Mary is an upper elementary teacher and creator of Teaching With a Mountain View. She has a passion for differentiated instruction and creating resources that engage students in authentic, meaningful learning that they can get excited about! In addition to being a classroom teacher, she also has experience as a Talented and Gifted Program Coordinator and as a K-5 Interventionist. You can visit her on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, her blog, or at her TpT store Teaching With a Mountain View.
