8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 5 of 12
Limited, omniscient and unreliable narrators
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.
Alaska content standards learning standard: RL.8.6 · limited, omniscient and unreliable narrators
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
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
In the Alaska content standards, 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: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
A writer wants readers to know a secret that a character does not know. Which point of view works best?
third-person omniscient
Hint: An omniscient narrator knows more than the characters.
Question 2
How would the passage change if it were told only from Jin's view?
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.
The reader would not know about the cake or the cousins.
Hint: Jin cannot see the kitchen or the hedge.
Question 3
How does the narrator explain the smoky kitchen?
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.
by calling it atmosphere
Hint: Find the sentence about the smoke.
Question 4
Which clue best suggests a narrator is unreliable?
The narrator's description often contradicts what other characters say and do.
Hint: If the details do not match the narrator's claims, be suspicious.
Question 5
What point of view is used?
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.
third-person omniscient
Hint: We learn what Jin, his mother and his cousins are doing and thinking.
Question 6
What does the reader understand that the narrator will not admit?
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.
The soup was not good.
Hint: Look at how the others react.