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3rd Grade · Reading · RL.3.6, RI.3.6

Point of View Lesson Plan for 3rd Grade

A ready-to-teach point of view lesson for 3rd Grade, built around first and third person narrators, pronoun clues, an author's opinion and reasons, and how a reader's own view can differ. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 47 minutes

Learning objective

  • Tell whether a story is in first or third person
  • Use pronouns as clues to point of view
  • Compare the narrator's view with their own

Materials

Lesson steps

  1. 1. Build the background (5 min)

    Introduce point of view in plain language and connect it to a book the class already knows. Write the key term where students can see it all lesson. For 3rd Grade, one clear sentence beats a full definition.

  2. 2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)

    Read a short passage aloud. Stop twice and narrate your own thinking about point of view: what you noticed in the text and what made you notice it. Students are learning the move, not the answer.

  3. 3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)

    Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"

  4. 4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)

    Hand out "Point of View in a Story About a New Baby Brother". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.

  5. 5. Share and close (5 min)

    Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate point of view one final time in the students' own words, not yours.

Check for understanding

Ask each student to point to the evidence in the text for one of their answers. A student who has the right answer but cannot find the line has not yet learned point of view.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild point of view with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own point of view problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand point of view.

Skills covered in this lesson

Narrator point of view · Author's point of view

Practice pages for this lesson

6 items, 12 printable pages that match the independent-practice step.

Questions teachers ask about teaching point of view

What does point of view mean in 3rd grade?
Point of view is who is telling the story and how they see it. In 3rd grade, children tell whether a story is told in first person (I and me) or third person (he, she and they), and they compare the narrator's or author's view with their own (RL.3.6 and RI.3.6).
How can my child tell first person from third person?
Look at the pronouns outside of dialogue. If the narrator says I, me and my, the story is in first person. If the narrator says he, she or they about the characters, it is in third person. The narrator pages ask children to copy two pronouns as proof.
What is an author's point of view?
It is what the author thinks about the topic. Authors show it with words like I think, I believe and should, and they give reasons. Children copy the opinion sentences from the article, then write whether they agree.
Is there an answer key for each worksheet?
Yes. All ten point of view sheets have an answer key. For questions that ask for your child's own opinion, the key gives a sample answer.

More reading lesson plans for 3rd Grade

Looking for printables rather than a plan? Browse all point of view worksheets for 3rd Grade.