Name: Date: Narrative Point of View Activity Sheet
Part 1: For any story or novel, you can ask a few questions to understand the narrative point of
view. Using a work of fiction, answer each of the following questions.
Title of story or novel: Author: Questions
The Narrator
1. Who is telling what happens?
2. Write down a sentence (or two) from the
story that helps you know who is telling
what happens.
Tips
§ You may or may not know the name of the
person telling what happens. If you don’t
know the name, identify the person with a
description.
§ Look for sentences in which the narrator
tells something a character does.
Larchmont, NY. www.eyeoneducation.com. All rights reserved.
The Narrator’s Point of View
3. Is the narrator a character in the story or
an outside observer? How do you know?
4. Does the narrator use the first-person
point of view or the third-person point of
view? How do you know?
5. Whose thoughts does the narrator tell
about? Write down a sentence or two
from the story as an example.
§ A character in the story takes part in the
action and conversations. An outside
observer knows what is happening but is
not part of the action or conversations. The
outside observer often does not have a
name or identity; he or she is just the voice
telling the story.
§ Does the narrator tell what happens using
first-person pronouns such as I, me, we, and
us? Or does the narrator tell what happens
using mainly third-person pronouns such
as he, she, they, and them?
§ A first-person narrator knows only his or
her own thoughts. A third-person narrator
may know the thoughts of one or more
characters.
21
Reproduced with permission from Davis, Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, 6-8.
Copyright 2013 Routledge
All rights reserved. www.routledge.com
00i-196_CCLL_6-8_4p.indb 21
8/30/12 3:03 PM
Part 2: Read each of the following excerpts. Then answer the questions about the narrator and the
point of view.
Excerpt A
And so the boy climbed up the tree and gathered her apples and carried them away.
And the tree was happy.
(from The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein)
1. Who is telling what happens? 2. How do you know? 3. Whose feelings does the narrator know about? 4. What feeling(s) does the narrator reveal? 5. Does the narrator use the first-person or the third-person point of view? How do you know?
Excerpt B
“I have a surprise for you,” Ruel said, the first time he brought me here. And you know
how sick he makes me when he grins.
“What is it?” I asked, not caring in the least.
And that is how we drove up to the house. Four bedrooms and two toilets and a half.
“Isn’t it a beauty?” he said, not touching me, but urging me out of the car with the
phony enthusiasm in his voice.
(from “Really, Doesn’t Crime Pay?” by Alice Walker)
6. Who is telling what happens? 7. How do you know? 8. Whose feelings does the narrator know about? 9. What feeling(s) does the narrator reveal? 10. Does the narrator use the first-person or third-person point of view? How do you know?
Larchmont, NY. www.eyeoneducation.com. All rights reserved.
22
Reproduced with permission from Davis, Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, 6-8.
Copyright 2013 Routledge
All rights reserved. www.routledge.com
00i-196_CCLL_6-8_4p.indb 22
8/30/12 3:03 PM
Excerpt C
Back in the room I wrote the boy’s temperature down and made a note of the time to
give the various capsules.
“Do you want me to read to you?”
“All right. If you want to,” said the boy. His face was very white and there were dark
areas under his eyes. He lay very still in the bed and seemed very detached from what was
going on.
I read aloud from Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates; but I could see he was not following
what I was reading.
“How do you feel, Schatz?” I asked him.
“Just the same, so far,” he said.
...
After a while he said to me, “You don’t have to stay in here with me Papa, if it bothers
you.”
“It doesn’t bother me.”
(from “A Day’s Wait,” by Ernest Hemingway)
11. Who is telling what happens? 12. How do you know? 13. Whose feelings does the narrator know about? 14. What feeling(s) does the narrator reveal? 15. Does the narrator use the first-person or third-person point of view? How do you know?
Larchmont, NY. www.eyeoneducation.com. All rights reserved.
23
Reproduced with permission from Davis, Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, 6-8.
Copyright 2013 Routledge
All rights reserved. www.routledge.com
00i-196_CCLL_6-8_4p.indb 23
8/30/12 3:03 PM