Who Is the Narrator?

Subject: ELA (English Language Arts)

Lesson Length: 30 - 45 mins

Topic: Points of View (First and Third Person Narratives)

Grade Level: 4

Standards / Framework:

Brief Description: Students will learn about first and third person points of view by narrating comics of their own.

Know Before You Start: This lesson serves as an introduction to first and third person points of view.

Hook:

Read and discuss the sample comic.
- Have students compare how each character in the comic is telling the story about the party.
- What do they notice?
Discuss that stories can be told from different points of view. Authors often use either first-person or third-person narrations to tell their stories. What is the difference?
In first-person narratives the narrator is a character in the story. They talk about themselves because the story is told from their own point of view. The pronouns "I" and "me" are often used.
In third-person narratives the narrator isn’t a character in the story. They don’t talk about themselves. They talk about the events and characters like a storyteller, telling the story from afar. The pronouns he, she, them, they, it, etc. are used in this type of narrative.

Activity:

Using the sample comic as a guide, have students create an original comic showing both types of narration.
Have students narrate the story they created using both first-person and third-person narratives in their comics.

Closure: