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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.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: Reading 9 · 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 Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, 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: Maine Department of Education

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

    What is an unreliable narrator?

    • a narrator who speaks to the reader as you
    • a narrator who always knows everything
    • a narrator who may not tell the truth or may not understand events accurately
    • a narrator who never uses the word I

  2. Question 2

    What can the reader NOT learn from this passage?

    Outside the Doors

    Amara stood outside the hospital doors, her backpack heavy on her shoulder. She wondered whether her grandmother would remember her today. Nurses hurried past, and she could not tell what any of them were thinking; their faces gave nothing away.

    • where Amara is standing
    • what the nurses are thinking
    • that Amara carries a backpack
    • that Amara is worried

  3. Question 3

    How does Kai see the fence?

    The Fence

    Kai watched the new neighbor's fence go up and saw it as a wall between them. Each board seemed to say, “Keep out.”

    Across the yard, the neighbor hammered in the last nail. She felt proud. At last, her dog could play safely.

    • as a gift
    • as something to be proud of
    • as a wall that says to keep out
    • as a safe place for a dog

  4. Question 4

    Why does the narrator show both Kai's and the neighbor's thoughts?

    The Fence

    Kai watched the new neighbor's fence go up and saw it as a wall between them. Each board seemed to say, “Keep out.”

    Across the yard, the neighbor hammered in the last nail. She felt proud. At last, her dog could play safely.

    • to hide the fence from the reader
    • to make the story shorter
    • to prove that Kai is wrong
    • to show that one event can mean different things to different people

  5. Question 5

    Whose thoughts does the reader learn?

    Outside the Doors

    Amara stood outside the hospital doors, her backpack heavy on her shoulder. She wondered whether her grandmother would remember her today. Nurses hurried past, and she could not tell what any of them were thinking; their faces gave nothing away.

    • everyone's
    • Amara's
    • the nurses'
    • her grandmother's

  6. Question 6

    A narrator tells the story using he, she and they, and can see into only one character's mind. What point of view is this?

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

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