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Reading and Writing 6-8 / Week 05 / Tuesday
2/6
Week 05 · Structure and Point of View

Tuesday

Who is telling this?
// Who tells it, and where each scene sits
⏱ about 20 min

Tuesday: Who Is Telling This?

Rocket slaps a page on the Signal Desk. "Press Day, by me. Every word is true."

Raven reads it. "I folded faster than anyone. I carried the heavy box. I saved the day when it rained." She looks up. "Every word is I."

"It is my story," Rocket says.

"It is first person," Raven says. "We only see what you saw. Where was I in your Press Day?"

Rocket checks. "Um. Holding the door?"

Nova spins slowly. "Tomorrow, Raven writes the same morning," she says. "Then you two can compare doors."

"The same morning twice?" Rocket asks. "That is the point," Raven says. "Who tells it changes what we see."

Learn it: narrator and point of view

The narrator is the voice that tells the story. Point of view is whose eyes we see through.

A first-person narrator says I and we. We get that person's thoughts, and only that person's thoughts.

A third-person narrator says he, she or they, and stands outside the story. It may follow one character or several.

Raven thinks aloud: "The narrator says I and only shares Rocket's feelings, so this is first person. I should wonder what Raven felt."

  • Find the pronouns: I and we, or he, she and they.
  • Ask whose thoughts you are given.
  • Ask what this narrator notices and what this narrator skips.
  • Ask how another character might tell the same scene.
FIRST OR THIRD PERSON?
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
I counted the cards twice before I touched the paper. Which point of view?
Rocket grabbed the box and ran, and Raven sighed. Which point of view?
In first person, whose thoughts do we get?

Read it

Read it
Press Day, by Rocket
I woke up before the alarm because Press Day is the best day. I was at the Signal Desk by seven.
Nobody else was there yet, which proves I am the most dedicated member of the crew.
I started folding. I am fast. By the time Raven showed up, I had a stack as tall as the pencil jar.
"Morning," she said, and went straight to the corkboard. She counts cards before she does anything. I do not know why.
Then the sky went gray. I heard the first drops on the porch roof and knew exactly what to do.
I grabbed the big box of issues and ran for the door. The door was shut. I bounced off it.
Raven opened it. "Thanks," I said, and got the box under cover before a single drop touched it.
Nova flew ahead to check the street. When the rain stopped, I handed out every issue myself, almost.
Raven took the far end of Maple Street, which was fine, because the near end has more porches.
When we got back, the stack was gone and the corkboard was clear. I had saved Press Day.
Raven said something about the cards, but I was already thinking about next week's issue.
That is how it happened. I was there.
CHECK IT: PRESS DAY, BY ROCKET
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Who is the narrator?
What can this narrator not tell us?
Which detail does Rocket hurry past?
I do not know why tells us the narrator
CHECK IT: THE VOICE
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Which word shows Rocket's opinion of himself?
Myself, almost suggests that
Which sentence sounds most like Rocket, fast and sure?
How does the narrator feel at the end?
Who opened the door when Rocket bounced off it? Type the name.
Which end of Maple Street did Raven take? Type the one word.
SentenceTrue or false?
The narrator says I and we, so this is first person.?
Rocket says he does not know why Raven counts the cards.?
The box of issues got soaked.?
Rocket listened carefully to what Raven said about the cards.?
The narrator calls himself the most dedicated member of the crew.?
Nova handed out the issues on the far end of the street.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEThe box stayed dry. Rocket was already thinking about next week when Raven spoke. Raven took the far end.
Try it
Tell someone at home about your morning in first person, in five sentences.
Then ask them to tell your morning back to you in third person. What changed?

A narrator shows you a window, not the whole house. Tomorrow Raven opens the other window.

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