Looking at Points of View

Sorry posts have been sparse. I plan to pick up the pace some now...

I have had the pleasure of mentoring two relatively new teachers who have been teaching me a few things along the way! I don't see myself as a mentor so much as a 'professional collaborator," something I wish I had had as a new teacher. I enjoy watching these new professionals teach, plan and discuss student learning. I'm just not so sure who is benefiting more - me or them.

Over the past nine weeks, I have been learning how to better implement readers workshop in the 7th grade. Sara has been walking the kids through the elements of fiction: setting, character types, characterization, tone, mood and point of view. She is a pro! Her mini lessons are short and engaging. She integrates video clips, picture books and short student reflections on students' own reading to help students synthesize and apply their learning.

Now we are shifting the focus to using those same elements of fiction as the students write their own narratives. Today, I had students consider point of view in writing. The students have a good grasp of how to identify the different points of view in their reading, but today we looked at point of view from a writers perspective; why or how does a writer decide what point of view to use. It is something I hadn't given much thought to before.

Looking at a passage written in first person, the students felt they made a strong connection with the main character. They were more apt to experience the same ups and downs, joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, pain and joy when the author wrote in first person. They felt like they were "in the story"; they could "get into the character's head".

Looking at a third person limited example, students found similarities and differences. While there was a connection with the main character, it wasn't as direct. When the author used third person pronouns, the students didn't feel like they were in the character's head as much, rather they watched some of the action like it was a movie. Interesting concept, I think.

We discussed third person omniscient and third person objective examples, but those points of view were less familiar to these 7th graders. They recognized that the connection between the reader and characters were more distant. Maybe these points of view will make more sense later as we look at non-fiction texts?

I asked students to consider which point of view they were going to use in their stories and what it would have on their reader. I did a quick survey on which they thought they would use at this point. I was surprised that the class was split. I had intended to write my narrative (as I have all narratives up to this point) in first person, but I told my class that I was going to challenge myself to write a third person limited narrative...we will see how it goes!

Hope you will join us as we consider the other elements of fiction while developing our own stories! And please let me know your thoughts!