CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.6
The Standard
Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Literature
What This Standard Means
Students need to track who is telling the story, what each character knows, believes, and feels, and how the author shows those differences. They should notice word choice, thoughts, actions, dialogue, and what is left unsaid.
Mastery means students can explain how two viewpoints are built across scenes and why the contrast matters to the plot, conflict, or theme. Students often confuse point of view with opinion, miss unreliable narration, or describe characters separately without comparing how the author sets them against each other.
Ways to Teach It
- Give pairs two colors to highlight lines showing each character’s thoughts, feelings, or bias in the same scene.
- Ask students to write: How would this scene change if the other character narrated it? Use two text details.
- Use an exit ticket with one quote and ask: Whose viewpoint is shown, and how do you know?
- Compare a novel scene to a group text message where two people describe the same event differently.
Plan a Lesson for CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.6
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.6
Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.6
Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their resp...