Subscribe

6th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 1 of 14

Point of View

Who is telling the story?

What your child practices

Telling first person, third person limited and third person omniscient apart, and thinking about what each narrator can and can't know.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 6.9(E) · omniscient and limited point of view

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. First person: the narrator is a character and says I.
  2. Third person limited: the narrator uses he or she and knows only one character’s thoughts.
  3. Third person omniscient: the narrator knows what every character thinks and feels.

Example: “Leo worried about the test. Across the room, Ana was sure she would ace it.” Which point of view is this? The narrator says he and she, so it is third person. We learn both Leo’s and Ana’s thoughts. Answer: Third person omniscient

Point of View in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 1 of 14 in 6th grade English Language Arts, before Connotation & Tone.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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 something a first-person narrator can NOT know for sure?

    • what they see and hear
    • what they remember from yesterday
    • how they feel themselves
    • what other characters are secretly thinking

  2. Question 2

    From which point of view is this passage told?

    Noah noticed the empty chair beside him. He wished Amir had come to the party, and he wondered whether he had said something wrong the day before.

    • First person
    • Third person limited
    • Third person omniscient

  3. Question 3

    From which point of view is this passage told?

    Zoe could hear the rain drumming on the tent. She pulled her sleeping bag up to her chin and tried not to think about the leak she had spotted earlier.

    • First person
    • Third person limited
    • Third person omniscient

  4. Question 4

    From which point of view is this passage told?

    Sam stared at the math test. He had studied for hours, but now every formula seemed to slip away. Across the room, Priya was already writing quickly.

    • First person
    • Third person omniscient
    • Third person limited

  5. Question 5

    Which sentence is written in first person?

    • Kenji grabbed his umbrella and ran for the bus.
    • You grab your umbrella and run for the bus.
    • I grabbed my umbrella and ran for the bus.
    • They grabbed their umbrellas and ran for the bus.

  6. Question 6

    Retell this in third person from Kenji's point of view: “I left my skates by the door.”

    • You left your skates by the door.
    • Kenji left his skates by the door.
    • I left Kenji's skates by the door.
    • Kenji left my skates by the door.

More 6th grade