Texts and Lesson Ideas for Teaching Multiple Points of View (Common Core Reading Literature Standard 6)

Point of View has always been one of my absolute favorite skills to teach.  Helping students to see events from multiple points of view is a vital skill to so many learning milestones: reading abstract plots, building empathy, understanding narrators, building a conceptual foundation to history, and my list could go on.

This summer I am doing some planning for next year for grades 5 and 7, so I decided to start searching for text and lesson ideas by standard.  Standard 6 of the Reading Literature standards focuses on point of view. As you look at the wording of the standard of each grade, you can see that the concept just builds a little each year. My goal is to work on some lesson units for my store with lesson ideas by standard for middle school.

Grade 5 RL 6 - Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.

Grade 6 RL 6 - Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

Grade 7 RL 6 - Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.

Grade 8 - Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

Some great examples of picture books to use as a mentor text that include multiple points of view:

Voices in The Park - This is a simple story with four differ points of view on a walk in the park.

The Pain and the Great One - This is one of my favorite books to teach with because most students can relate to the idea of an annoying sibling. A brother and sister each describe one another and how they annoy each other.  This is also a great story to teach making connections.

The Day the Crayons Quit - This is a great humorous story told from the point of view of a box of crayons to explain why they have decided to quit.  I love following up this book with writing activities where students write from unique points of view.  I have a unit for this book in my TpT store for upper elementary.

Hey Little Ant - This story is told from alternating points of view between a little boy and an ant.

Teaching point of view by looking at unique points of view:

Teaching fractured fairy tales is always a fun way to teach about point of view and writing from unique perspectives. You can find many great examples of great fractured fairy tales if you search on Pinterest.

Two Bad Ants is a great book that gets kids thinking how life would be from the point of view of an ant. Getting students to write from different perspectives always produces some of my favorite writing pieces of the year.  Ask your students to write from an object's point of view or the antagonist.  Here is a lesson for using Two Bad Ants.

Some other lessons and resources from Read Write Think on point of view:

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/wolf-analyzing-point-view-23.html
http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/activities-projects/explore-point-view-fairy-30148.html
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/spend-shoes-exploring-role-265.html

Some other links I found:

Suggestions of kids and young adult novels with multiple points of view: http://thestylinglibrarian.com/2013/05/27/styling-librarian-children-books-with-multiple-points-of-view/

Suggestions of kids books on point of view: http://www.teachingkidsbooks.com/3rd-4th-grade/point-of-view

Lessons on point of view from Read Write Think for middle school students:
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/teaching-voice-with-anthony-167.html
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/story-writing-from-object-30917.html

Resources of suggestions of short stories and lesson ideas for teaching standard 6 focusing on literary elements such as irony: 

My favorite short story from this list that I would use to teach irony and point of view is The Ransom of Red Chief. After having students read this story, we always put the kidnappers on trial to see if they were really guilty.

http://www.elacommoncorelessonplans.com/literature-reading-standards/exemplars-g-9-10/short-story-guides-lessons/teaching-irony.html
http://www.brighthubeducation.com/high-school-english-lessons/41476-short-stories-to-teach-point-of-view/
http://www.brighthubeducation.com/high-school-english-lessons/40339-short-stories-to-teach-irony/