Point of View: Lesson Ideas
Lesson: Teacher analysis of a non-fiction selection
Instructional Approach: Guided
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: Students develop the ability to understand point of view by observing the teacher’s analytical skills in action.
1. Select an article with a distinct point of view to analyze as an example.
Make enough copies of a similar document to distribute to members of a small group.
Talk about:
- Clues from the text
- Your background knowledge
- Your inferences
- Questions that you have
- Other points of view that are missing
Lesson: Diagrams as a springboard for writing from different perspectives
Instructional Approach: Shared and independent
Appropriate Grade: any
Description: Select an article or story two distinct points of view to analyze as an example. Using chart paper and a marker, or two big hula hoops and index cards, make two intersecting circles and together, plot how the characters have some common views and some differing views. Use the results of the Venn diagram to inspire a short shared or independent writing assignment focusing on point of view.
Lesson: School Uniforms and point of view
Appropriate Grade: 3-5
Instructional Approach: shared
Description: Teacher and students brainstorm the positions that might be held by teachers, students, and parents on the issue of supporting the purchase of school uniforms. Teacher does a modelled writing of one of the positions. Then students pair up to brainstorm the positions that might be held by teachers, students, and parents on the issue of not supporting the purchase of school uniforms.
Lesson: Fold the line
Appropriate Grade: grade 3 and up
Instructional Approach: group
Description: Teacher talks about two sides of an issue (school uniforms vs. street clothes) and students then decide which point of view they will support. One end of the line is strongly in support and the other end of the line is strongly opposed. Once students are lined up, the teacher folds the line in half and supporting and opposing students are standing face to face. Students then discuss with each other their points of view. After discussion teacher asks students to stand in a straight line once again and students’ relative position changes are then discussed.
Lesson: Buying a pet and point of view
Appropriate Grade: K-1
Instructional Approach: modelled and shared
Description: Make a t-chart with class and either draw pictures or make jot notes about why a child might want and pet and why a parent might not want a pet. Make another chart which does the reverse. (Why a parent might want a pet and why a child might not). This activity is meant to explore point of view and introduce the vocabulary.
Lesson: “What’s the Voice” and point of view
Instructional Approach: Shared
Appropriate Grade: 4 and up
Description: (this activity is from New First Steps Writing, 2008) The class brainstorms a list of words that can be used to describe an author’s voice and the responses are recorded on a chart. When we hear an author’s voice it is often a powerful example of that author’s point of view. Teacher provides small groups with a range of short texts that are examples of strong voice. Students are invited to discuss the author’s voice. Then pairs of students fill in the “What’s the voice” chart.
| Text title | Words to Describe the author’s voice | Where I saw evidence of this in the text |
Lesson: Physical prompt and point of view
Appropriate Grade: K-1
Instructional Approach: modelled and shared
Description: Teacher places an object such as a bird’s nest on a table in the middle of a group of students. Students examine the object and discuss it. Teacher then asks the students to imagine or visualize what the nest might say if it could speak. What would it say to the mother bird? To the eggs? To the chicks? To the tree? What would the nest say during the winter months? What would it say when all the birds have left? The teacher and the students then write a poem together from the point of view of the nest. (lesson idea from Helen Klein, Briarcrest)
Lesson: See it my way (drama activity)
Instructional Approach: Shared
Appropriate Grade: 3 and up
Description: This drama activity prepares students to work in a variety of role playing situations and encourages them to examine other peoples’ points of view. Students are given roles and contribute to the class discussion from the perspective of that person. Teacher picks a problem to discuss and assigns each member of a group a different role with a different point of view (the point of view is articulated by the teacher). Each member must argue from his/her own perspective.
For example:
Coyotes have been killing pets inside fenced residential lots.
- home owners who have had their pets killed
- police who have been called by home owners worried about their children
- home owners who believe that the coyotes should be trapped and exterminated
- home owners who believe that the coyotes should be left alone
- Conservationists who believe in live-trapping and relocating the coyotes
- Home owners who believe that treated bait should be put out for the coyotes to cause them to become sterile (so the existing animals don’t have any offspring)
Lesson: Using wordless picture books as a springboard for writing from different points of view
Appropriate Grade: K-3
Instructional Approach: Modelled and shared
Description: Use a wordless picture book that is suitable to teach point of view (i.e. Good Dog, Carl, Flotsam, Window by Jeannie Baker the Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher by Molly Bang Tuba Lessons by T.C. Bartlett Clown by Quentin Blake, The Arrival by Shaun Tan (for intermediate students.)
The teacher can share excerpts from texts to further illustrate how word choices reflect point of view. The teacher will lead the class through the rich illustrations of the story, Good Dog, Carl in order to elicit student responses for each character’s point of view. For example, on one page the teacher could ask a student to “become” the character of the baby and describe the action on a particular page. Using that same page, the teacher could ask another student to describe the action on the page from the dog’s point of view. Finally, another student could act as the third person by becoming “a fly on the wall” in the illustration and depicting the scene.
Lesson: Newspaper articles and a neutral point of view
Appropriate Grade: 5 and up
Instructional Approach: Modelled and shared
Description: News reporters try to write with a “neutral point of view.” Reporters attempt to obtain the significant viewpoints on the issue on which they are gathering facts. Instead of simply stating one perspective, reporters try to present all relevant viewpoints without judging them. Reporters attempts to be informative, not persuasive. Reporters can state opinions in articles, but they must be presented as opinions, not as facts. Reporters also mention the source of opinions for example, “Supporters of the Tamil Tigers say that…” or ” Prime Minister Harper believes that…”
Have students act as news reporters writing a story on a controversial issue of interest to them. Make a chart together to examine the differing points of view which must be covered in the story. Discuss how to maintain neutrality and how to be non-judgmental. Have pairs of students work together on a piece.
Lesson: “What are your moves as a writer?” and point of view
Instructional Approach: Modelled and Independent
Appropriate Grade: 4 and up
Description: The teacher talks to the class about literary devices (or colloquially “moves”) that writers use to get across their point of view. The teacher models the writing of a short paragraph using one or two “moves”. Students then try writing a short paragraph. Here is a sample of a few devices:
-choice of language (flowery, formal, emotive, business-like etc.)
-humour, wit, irony
-flashback
-understatement
-symbolism
-opinions disguised as facts (e.g. It has been widely reported…)
-statistics
Lesson: Comparing News Articles with differing points of view
Instructional Approach: Shared and independent
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: Teacher invites the students to compare and contrast news articles about the same topic written by different authors. The class then works with the teacher to create the outline for a third article that is from a different perspective. Teacher helps guide students by mentioning values, attitudes and beliefs that could influence writing. Students then use the outline to individually report the news item. Students that finish early could create an alternate version.
Lesson: “What if?” and point of view
Instructional Approach: Shared and independent
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: (this idea comes from New First Steps Writing, 2008) Teacher selects a text that has a strong point of view. Teacher then asks the question, “What if the main character was from the country instead of the city?” (or another change such as nationality, socio-economic group, character traits, setting, occupation, beliefs, etc.) and gets the class to suggest how the elements of the story would have to be changed. The teacher chooses a small portion of the text and invites the class to innovate individually.
Lesson: Using websites that show bias
Appropriate Grade: 5 and up
Instructional Approach: shared and independent
Description: Use websites that are linked to work you are doing in the content areas and examine the biases and limitations of these websites. Refer to the TDSB media literacy document for help with critical literacy questions.
Lesson: Letter to a fictional character and point of view
Appropriate Grade: 4-8
Instructional Approach: modelled, shared and independent
Description: Teacher uses drama activity “hot seat” to access the point of view of a particular character in a story. Teacher models the writing of a letter to that character in the role of another character. Students then try their hand at the same activity using a different set of characters.
Lesson: Unreliable narrator
Appropriate Grade: 7 and up
Instructional Approach: Guided
Description: Teacher uses the work of an unreliable narrator (Edgar Allen Poe comes to mind) to examine the characteristics of an unreliable narrator and how this impacts a story.
Lesson: Debate and point of view
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Instructional Approach: shared
Description: Teacher sets up the conditions for a debate which examines two points of view.
Lesson: Story writing to examine point of view
Appropriate Grade: 4 and up
Instructional Approach: independent
Description: Students write a story from a different person’s point of view.
Lesson: Using quotations to examine point of view
Appropriate Grade: 7 and up
Instructional Approach: shared
Description: In pairs, students read a story written that contains two different points of view. Together students read statements made by characters in the book and discuss what points of view each represents. Students get back together with the group to share.
Lesson: Compare and Contrast to examine point of view
Instructional Approach: Modelled and shared
Appropriate Grade: 3 and up
Description: Students compare and contrast two fairy tales using specific examples of characters’ thoughts, words and actions to understand point of view.
Lesson: TV and point of view
Instructional Approach: Modelled and shared
Appropriate Grade: 5 and up
Description: Teacher selects a portion of a television show where information that is presented from a particular point of view. Teacher models how he/she knows that this show presents a biased position. Students are then provided with another media product and in pairs they find clues from the clip that suggest a particular point of view.
Lesson: Bias in the news
Instructional Approach: Modelled and shared
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: Teacher models how to detect bias in the news by examining a newspaper article or a news clip. Students and the teacher analyze how words are manipulated in such a way that their meanings reflect a bias. The teacher and students together consider the positive or negative implications of words used and how language can be manipulated to favour a particular view of the event or issue being explored.
Lesson: Camera angle used to understand point of view
Instructional Approach: Modelled, Guided and Shared
Appropriate Grade: 4 and up
Description: Teacher models how to identify two types of camera shots: the long shot and the close up. Teacher and students discuss how a subject is framed and why this might affect the meaning of the photo.
Students then create viewfinders from 8.5X 11” cardboard. They cut out the middle to form a 3cm wide frame. Students cut across two diagonally facing corners to create two “L” shapes. Now these two Ls can be used to frame close-ups or long shots.
Have a group of students create a tableau. Have another student look at the scene using a wide angle frame and then a close up. Talk as a class about what can be noticed by the two different viewpoints.
Lesson: Tableau and Thought-tracking
Instructional Approach: Shared
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: Teacher reads a text that provides a distinct point of view. Example: Trupp. In small groups students develop a tableaux to show the differing view points of Trupp, the elders, the bird, the homeless woman, the city people, the crazy homeless man, the woman with the birds, the man at the fountain etc.
Each group performs their tableau while the teacher touches the shoulder of students in tableau to “Thought Track”. Each person who is touched talks briefly about what he/she is thinking from his/her point of view while the others stay frozen. The teacher then lifts his/her hand, the student stops talking and then the teacher moves to another student. This activity can be the inspiration for a writing activity.
Lesson: Imitate the author
Instructional Approach: individual
Appropriate Grade: 5 and up
Description: (This activity comes from New First Steps Writing, 2008)
| Text | Target Audience | Type of language used | Theme | Style | Devices |
My paragraph example writing in the style of (name of author) is:
Lesson: Reduction poetry and point of view
Instructional Approach: Shared and independent
Appropriate Grade: 3 and up
Description: Teacher provides a list of sentence starters about a topic that is of interest to students and is suitable for demonstrating point of view. The teacher and the students write a short paragraph together. The teacher then models how she underlines a few of the most descriptive words or phrases that best describe one particular point of view. She arranges these to form a poem.
Lesson: Ink blots and point of view
Instructional Approach: Shared
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: Pairs of students examine Rorschach ink blots. Each partner takes a turn saying what he/she “sees” in the spots. Pairs of students talk about the reason why they view the images from differing perspective. (Background knowledge, experiences, knowledge, and personality)
Lesson: Flyers and point of view
Instructional Approach: Independent
Appropriate Grade: 4 and up
Description: Students write a flyer from two different points of view (Example: Off-leash enthusiasts and Citizens for Dog-free parks)
Lesson: Art and point of view
Instructional Approach: Modelled and shared
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: Teacher chooses a piece of fine art and talks about the artist, the date of the piece, and the medium. The teacher asks the question: What does information about the artist, the medium, the subject, and the composition tell you about the prevailing attitudes and conditions of the time period? (For example, what symbolism is used? how is perspective used? in what roles are people portrayed? what is left out of the composition?)
Lesson: Oral history and point of view
Instructional Approach: Independent
Appropriate Grade: 5 and up
Description: Students research their family history by interviewing relatives. Students use letters, audio recordings, and video to compile a report on an important time for in their family. Make note of differing recollections about the same event.
Lesson: Music and point of view
Instructional Approach: Modelled and shared
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: Teacher and class studies song lyrics together that relate to a specific time period. Grade 8 classes, for example, could use Mike Ford’s song “Thanadelthur” from the “Canada Needs You” CD to discuss how our point of view about Thanadelthur might be different than how she was perceived in the past.
Lesson: Music and point of view
Instructional Approach: shared
Appropriate Grade: 3-5
Description: Use a song, for example the traditional song “The fox went out on a chilly night” to teach point of view. During shared writing, the teacher has the students help her write the story from another perspective such as that of farmer John, his wife, and then perhaps the baby foxes.
Lesson: Advertising and point of view
Instructional Approach: Modelled and shared
Appropriate Grade: 5 and up
Description: Use newspapers over time to analyze advertising. Have students research advertisements for a particular type of product (clothing, tools, household appliances, automobiles) through history. (Toronto Star Pages from the Past on the library website is good for this.) First the teacher models how he/she might answer the questions: What information do the advertisements contain? What claims do they make? Who is the target buyer? How has advertising for this product changed over time? What social changes are reflected by changes in advertising for this product? Then pairs of students analyse an ad from the past and one from the present. (Egypt in the News is a book which also has mock ads from ancient times which are fun to compare to present day ads because they show how point of view has changed)
Lesson: Diary or Historic Journals and point of view
Instructional Approach: Guided
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: Teacher and a small group of students read a personal diary from a historical period. Analyze the individual’s character, motivations, and opinions. Explain how the individual changed over the course of the diary. How might that person react if they were dropped into the present time?
Lesson: Time capsule and point of view
Instructional Approach: shared
Appropriate Grade: 3 and up
Description: Prepare a community time capsule with the class. What primary sources will you include to describe your present day community for future generations? What important information do you wish to convey? Which primary sources will get your message across? When should your time capsule be opened?
Lesson: Writing a balanced point of view
Instructional Approach: Modelled and independent
Appropriate Grade: 6 and up
Description: Write an account of a particular event paying particular attention to fairly representing multiple points of view. Ask yourself: Have I achieved proper balance among the competing points of view?
Lesson: Drawing from different perspectives
Instructional Approach: Guided and independent
Appropriate Grade: 3 to5
Description: Chose an object and allow students to circle around and draw it from different angles. (On top of the desk, from eye-level, from behind, from the front, etc.) After students have finished drawing, talk about their work as a group. Discuss how seeing different parts of the same object helps us understand it more completely. By looking at everyone’s drawings we may “see” parts of the object we might not have noticed before. Relate this “artist’s point of view” to point of view in literature.
Lesson: Point of view and Role playing
Instructional Approach: Shared writing
Appropriate Grade: 1-3
Description: Write a short paragraph with the students where you pretend to be an object. (Soccer ball, a paint brush, a clock, etc.)
Lesson: Shared writing to teach point of view
Instructional Approach: shared
Appropriate Grade: any
Description: Try writing as a class with two different perspectives.
Describe the holidays from the point of view of the person who is preparing the dinner and then describe it from the point of view of the turkey.
Loud rock music is being played inside a house by a 16 year old boy. Describe the music from the point of view of a grandmother. Describe the music from the point of view of the 16 year old boy.
Lesson: Non-fiction selection and point of view
Instructional Approach: shared
Appropriate Grade: 7-8
Have the students read a non-fiction selection and in pairs discuss the following questions:
Who is responsible for this information? What’s your evidence?
Does the author (person or organization) have an affiliation or mission that would influence the information? How do you know?
Is there a reason to distort the information?
Does it seem as if the authors of the information are trying to persuade the user to believe as they believe? In what ways do the authors do this?
Lesson: “Weasel” words and Wikipedia’s neutral point of view
Instructional Approach: guided
Appropriate Grade: 4-8
Description: Weasel words are defined by Wikipedia as being words or phrases that seemingly support statements without attributing opinions to verifiable sources. (Example: Experts suggest…)The main problem with weasel words is that they interfere with Wikipedia’s stance of maintaining a neutral point of view. Visit wikipedia with your class and read about what they have to say about weasel words. Write a weasely paragraph for your class and get them to re-write it to be neutral.
Weasel words are words or phrases that seemingly support statements without attributing opinions to verifiable sources. They give the force of authority to a statement without letting the reader decide whether the source of the opinion is reliable. If a statement can’t stand on its own without weasel words, it lacks neutral point of view; either a source for the statement should be found, or the statement should be removed. If a statement can stand without weasel words, they may be undermining its neutrality and the statement may be better off standing without them.
For example, “Montreal is the nicest city in the world,” is a biased or normative statement. Application of a weasel word can give the illusion of neutral point of view: “Some people say Montreal is the nicest city in the world.”
Although this is an improvement, since it no longer states the opinion as fact, it remains uninformative:
- Who says that? You?
- When did they say it? Now?
- How many people think that?
- How many is some?
- How many is most?
- What kind of people think that? Where are they?
- What kind of bias might they have?
- Why is this of any significance?
Weasel words don’t really give a neutral point of view; they just spread hearsay, or couch personal opinion in vague, indirect syntax. It is better to put a name and a face on an opinion than to assign an opinion to an anonymous source.
- Wordiness. Weasel words are generally sentence stuffing; they make sentences longer without carrying any information.
- Passive voice. Many weasel words require a sentence to be in the passive voice, e.g., “It has been said that …”.
- Though the passive voice is syntactically correct, Strunk and White recommend against its overuse in their Elements of Style, calling it “less direct, less bold, and less concise” than the active voice, though AP Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style contradict Strunk & White on this point.
- it fails to identify who stands behind the opinions or actions it describes. In sentences such as “it has been said he has had a shady past”, or “[noun] is thought to be [noun/adjective]”, the writer uses the passive voice to construct a convincing-sounding appeal to authority without naming the authority in question.
- Use of “clearly” or “obviously”. If it does not need saying, do not say it. If it does, do not apologize for it by using words like “clearly”.
- Some/many/most/all/few. Sentences like Some people think… lead to arguments about how many people actually think that. Is it some people or most people? How many is many people? As a rule, ad populum arguments should be avoided, such as “as most Wikipedians agree…”
- Repetition. Overuse of weasel words can lead to very monotonous-sounding articles due to the constraints they impose on sentence structure. For example: “Some argue…
Retrieved from:
“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words”
Lesson: Point of View Poetry
Name a profession
Write something that person might hear
Write something that person might see
Write something that person might say
Write something else that person might say
Name the same profession + a question mark
Write “No thanks,” and make a comment about this person’s job
Example 1:
High-rise window-washer
A falcon’s cry
Baby birds squawking on the 40th floor ledge
“You chicks waiting for a delivery?”
“Hope your mom doesn’t think I look like a pigeon!”
High-rise window-washer?
No thanks, I’ll do my bird watching with two feet on the ground.
Example 2:
Formula One driver
Revving engines
Burning tires
“Chess at 350 kilometres per hour!”
“Can I pull 5Gs on the curve?”
Formula One driver?
No Thanks, I do my best moves while stationary.
Lesson: Problem Posing Strategy
Instructional Approach: guided
Appropriate Grade: 4-8
Description: Problem Posing Strategy books that disrupt the commonplace and provide multiple viewpoints (This idea is from “Critical Literacy” by M. McLaughlin and G. DeVoogd page 64-65) and then asks readers to use inquiry to challenge the text. Teacher meets with a small group of students all with the same text to give students guided experience in examining how texts have certain viewpoints and discount others. The teacher will pick some guiding questions from the resource listed above to facilitate critical understanding.
Here are some examples of books useful for this lesson:
A Special Fate: Chiune Sugihara, Hero of the Holocaust by A. Gold (promotes social justice)
Bull Run by P. Fleishman (Civil War battle from 13 perspectives)
Talkin’ About Bessie by Grimes (multiple perspectives on Bessie Coleman’s life)
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by Cronin (the power of organized labour)
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me by Angelou and illustrated by Basquiat (text and pictures allow the reader to perceive the story in very different ways)
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss (fish presents mother’s perspective)
Black and White by D. Macaulay (four adjoining illustrated text each connected)
Sector 7 by D. Wiesner (wordless book where the reader determines the perspective)
The Arrival by Shaun Tan (wordless book at the intermediate level that examines the perspective of more than one immigrant to a strange land in an alternate reality)
Problem-Posing Questions
Who or what is in the text?
What gender is the focus or is viewed as more important in the story?
Are boys or the girls the most important characters in the story?
Who does most of the talking?
Whose picture is seen?
What point of view is presented by the characters in the text?
Is there a winner or a loser telling the story?
What ethnic group is the most common?
What type of family seems normal in the text?
What setting (country, neighbourhood) appears most common in the text?
What emotional or physical state seems the best in the text? (Does being calm or being active appear to be treated as better in the text?)
Who or what is missing from the text?
What gender is missing?
What viewpoint is lacking?
Is the antagonistic person’s point of view explored?
What ethnic group or race is uncommon?
What type of family seems unusual in the text?
What race is not present?
What setting is left out?
What is marginalized?
What gender is marginalized?
Does the author favour girls or boys?
What viewpoint is ridiculed?
Who are perceived to be odd because of their beliefs?
What setting do the characters scorn?
What place do the characters dislike?
What emotional tenor seems absurd in this text?
Does it seem better to be spontaneous or well-organized, giving or withholding, happy or serious?
Are people with different, creative ideas thought of as weird, or are they admired in the text?
Are people with particular body types, hairstyles, cars, clothes or attitudes admired in this text?
What body type, hairstyle, car, clothes or attitudes might not be admired?
What does the author want you to think?
What message does the text seem to convey?
What do the “good” characters do that makes them so “good?” How about the “bad” characters?
What are the values we might learn to use in our lives after reading this book?
What story might an alternative text tell?
Gender switch: If there are mostly boys in the text, create a story in which the characters are mostly girls. How would the story change?
Theme switch: Make up a story with the opposite them or different but closely related theme as a way of looking at the original them in a different way. How would this change the story’s message?
Body-Style Switch: If the main characters are tall, how would the story be different if they were short? If the main characters are big, how would the story change if they were small? If the main characters are athletic, how would the story change if they were not?
Clothes Switch: How would the story change if the characters were dressed differently—preppy, gangsta rapper-style.
Ethnic/race Switch: What if the characters were given different ethnicities or races? How would the story change?
Emotion Switch: Make up a story in which the characters exhibit a different emotional tone. If activity and action are honoured in the text, make up a story in which the characters are calm and thoughtful. If cracking jokes seems the best way to be in the text, try re-imagining the text with the best characters being serious instead.
Relationship/Organization Switch: If the main characters are friends, try portraying them as family members. If the main characters are part of a large family and grandmother is living with them, think about a single person living alone or a single father with his child. How do these switches change the story?
Setting Switch: Tell the story from the point of view of a different setting or social class. Explain how it would be different.
Language Switch: Tell the story using accents, vocabulary, and expressions from a different country or neighbourhood.
How can information from the text be used to promote justice?
How will my attitude or actions change about this topic?
How will I treat others differently as a result of having critically analyzed this topic?
What could I do to change a rule, a procedure, or an attitude that is unjust? To learn more about it? For example, could I write a letter or have a conversation?
How can I support those who are treated unfairly?
Point of View Questions
Example point of view questions:
Use clues from the story and your own ideas to identify (character’s name) point of view. How might the story be different if it was told by (another character’s name)?
Identify the main point of view or perspective in the text by using details and your own background knowledge. Explain another point of view or perspective that could exist.
How might (character’s name) point of view differ from your own? Use three details from the text in the explanation of your thinking.
Who is doing the talking in the story (poem, ad, passage, article) and how do you know?
Whose voice do you hear when you read the story? What details in the story give you your impression?
How might your background, experiences and perspective have influenced the way you understood the text?
Using evidence from the text and what you can infer about the character’s point of view, explain how it is similar or different from your own perspective.
What does the character’s decision mean to you and how might it affect other characters in the story?
Janine Schaub 