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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 5 of 12

Whose Story Is It?

Limited, omniscient and unreliable narrators

What your child practices

Recognizing third-person limited and omniscient narrators, spotting clues that a narrator is unreliable, and thinking about how a story would change from another character's point of view.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 8.3 · limited, omniscient and unreliable narrators

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Third-person limited: he, she, they, inside one character’s mind.
  2. Third-person omniscient: the narrator knows every character’s thoughts.
  3. An unreliable narrator may be wrong or biased, so look for clues that don’t match what they say.

Example: A narrator uses he, she and they, and sees into only one character’s mind. What point of view is this? He, she and they mean third person. Only one mind means it is limited. Answer: third-person limited

Whose Story Is It? in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 5 of 12 in 8th grade English Language Arts, after Irony, Satire & Allusion and before Forms, Patterns & Visuals.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A story is told with I, but the narrator only describes things that happened to other people. What can a reader still learn?

    • the author's address
    • the narrator's opinions, even when describing others
    • every character's thoughts
    • nothing about the narrator

  2. Question 2

    What point of view is used?

    The Best Soup Ever

    I want everyone to know that my soup was a triumph. The kitchen was a bit smoky, but that is what chefs call atmosphere. My brother coughed and left the room, probably to tell the neighbors how delicious it smelled.

    Dad said, “Let's order a pizza,” which shows how impatient he gets when he is hungry. I ate the whole bowl myself. Well, most of it. Some of it may have gone into the plant.

    • third-person limited
    • second person
    • first person
    • third-person omniscient

  3. Question 3

    What does the reader understand that the narrator will not admit?

    The Best Soup Ever

    I want everyone to know that my soup was a triumph. The kitchen was a bit smoky, but that is what chefs call atmosphere. My brother coughed and left the room, probably to tell the neighbors how delicious it smelled.

    Dad said, “Let's order a pizza,” which shows how impatient he gets when he is hungry. I ate the whole bowl myself. Well, most of it. Some of it may have gone into the plant.

    • Dad loves soup more than pizza.
    • The brother is a professional chef.
    • The soup was not good.
    • The plant needs more water.

  4. Question 4

    Which pronouns suggest a first-person narrator?

    • they, them and their
    • you only
    • I, me and my
    • she, her and hers

  5. Question 5

    What point of view is used?

    The Surprise Party

    Everyone at the table was thinking about Jin's birthday. Jin thought his friends had forgotten, and he pretended not to care. His mother, in the kitchen, checked the cake for the third time. Outside the window, his cousins crouched behind the hedge, trying not to laugh.

    • second person
    • third-person omniscient
    • third-person limited
    • first person

  6. Question 6

    If a story is retold from a different character's point of view, what mostly changes?

    • which details and feelings are shown
    • nothing at all
    • the title only
    • the setting only

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