Virginia SOL 5.RL.3.B
The Standard
Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first-and third-person narratives.
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Integration of Concepts
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify whether a story is told by a character or an outside narrator. They compare how each narrator affects the details, thoughts, and feelings the reader receives.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly identify who tells each story and support their answer with pronouns and details from the text. They explain how the narrator changes the information, thoughts, or feelings available to the reader.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think any story with dialogue using “I” has a first-person narrator. They may also confuse the narrator with the author or assume every third-person narrator knows all characters’ thoughts.
How to Assess It
- Give students two short passages about the same event, one in first person and one in third person. Ask them to identify each viewpoint and explain one difference in what the reader learns.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs two versions of one scene to sort, highlight pronouns, and label as first person or third person.
Ask students to write how the same playground conflict would sound when told by one child and by an outside narrator.
Play Narrator Match by having teams pair passage cards with viewpoint labels and cite one clue before keeping each card.
Compare two news accounts of the same school event, then discuss how each reporter’s position shapes the details included.
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Printable 5.RL.3.B Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 4.RL.2.D
Differentiate between first-and third-person point of view.
- 6.RL.2.C
Explain how an author develops the point of view (e.g., first-person, third person limited, third-person omniscient) of the narrator or speaker in a text and in...
- 7.RL.2.C
Explain how an author develops the points of view of different characters in a text (e.g., first-person, third person limited, third-person omniscient) and how ...
- 8.RL.2.C
Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.
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