Teaching Point of View in Upper Elementary

Teaching point of view in upper elementary is critical for state testing. It’s also one of my favorite skills to cover. Therefore, this year I decided to revamp my lessons. I wanted to make sure I did a thorough job of examining all aspects of point of view while keeping my lesson engaging and memorable.

Reading Objectives:

1. I want students to accurately identify the point of view.
2. Assess the speaker’s thoughts and feelings of the characters, situations, etc.
3. Evaluate how the point of view affects how the story is told and what information the audience receives.

Point of View Lessons:

Lesson 1

I start the unit by explaining to students how every story we read is told from a specific point of view and depending on who is telling the story we receive certain pieces of information. 

I like to compare this to a disagreement with a sibling (many of my students can relate to this haha). How two siblings can experience the exact same moment but offer a different perspective. We also discuss how this can affect things we consume on social media, the news, and other types of content. 

Next, we review the different types of narrators. We take this slow, starting with each type of narrator, looking at different sentences and short passages, and then we complete a point of view anchor chart and point of view interactive notebook together.

Lesson 2

Once I feel like my students have mastered identifying the types of narrators, we use pictures to create our own sentences. Depending on time and technology, students choose photos and write from different perspectives within each photo. I try to pick really silly pictures so students can get creative and have fun.

Lesson 3

Next, we compare short stories and passages from the same event. We discuss how the narrator thinks and feels about the topic.

Point of View Mentor Texts

–3 Little Pigs (and the Wolf’s point of view)

-Fairy Tales (and the other side of the story – series of books)

-Titanic (news article versus survivor stories)

-Scholastic Opinion Pieces

For example, we listen to the story of the 3 Little Pigs and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs as told by the wolf. We compare and contrast the different perspectives of the same story.

Point of View Writing Prompts

I typically use two types of writing prompts when discussing point of view in upper elementary. Both are perfect for test prep and allow students to think critically about the information they receive on a daily basis.

1. Rewrite the story from another perspective.
2. How does the point of view affect the information the reader receives?

Point of View Centers

Lastly, students practice the skill during literacy centers. We typically use point of view task cards and occasionally IXL.com. 

Overall, teaching point of view went over extremely well with my students. They loved this unit and so did I. My students were able to master the skill while having fun (total teacher win). I also value how well many of these activities can be converted over into a digital format.

Lastly, point of view allows for so many fun activities and connections to be can be made. It’s also such an important life skill to have. Being able to determine the narrator and their stance on a given topic is critical later on in life. 

How are you teaching p.o.v. in your classroom? Drop me a comment below!