A broken printing press has mixed up sentences from two books, and 4th grade students sort all twelve by point of view. Short lines such as "We won the game!" and "Marcus laughed loudly" go into a First-Person Narration column or a Third-Person Narration column. The hint tells them to look for pronouns outside the quotation marks. Two reflection questions follow. The sheet covers RL.4.6, and the answer key includes both columns and notes on the trickiest sentences.
RL.4.6
“Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.”
The sort itself, where students decide whether the narrator is a character or an outside observer. Lines like "“I am late,” he said." test the difference between speaker and narrator.
Twelve sentences sit in a grid, including "I watched them leave," "The girls whispered," "Our dog ran away," and "He gave me a gift." Students write each one in the First-Person or Third-Person column.
Students name the trickiest sentence and explain why it made them think twice, then write one new sentence for each category.
After a mini-lesson
Teach the pronoun hint first, then sort the first row together. "He gave me a gift" catches students who stop reading after the first word.
Card sort
Cut the grid into twelve strips and have pairs sort them on their desks. Pairs who disagree about "“Stop!” she yelled" usually settle it by finding who is telling the story.
Writing link
Question 2 of Think About It asks students to write their own sentences. Collect a few and use them as the warm-up for the next lesson.
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