Point of View Writing
Author: NYCWP
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LEHMAN COLLEGE
INSTITUTE FOR LITERACY STUDIES
Tel: (718) 960-8758
THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
250 Bedford Park Blvd. West
Fax: (718) 960-8054
Bronx, NY 10468-1589
NEW YORK CITY WRITING PROJECT
Point of View Writing
Purpose:
Point of view writing can be used in subject areas across the curriculum to get students involved in the material they are studying. Often in the English class limit students’ writing about literature to theme development, character analysis, and plot summary. Similarly, in history, science, health and other subject classes, we focus students’ writing on content summary and analysis. Point of view encourages students to take an in-depth look at concepts they re studying. It invites students to immerse themselves in an idea, a topic, a character, even an organism, by looking at it through different eyes.
Procedure:
- Introduction
- Elicit from the group a definition of point of view.
- Ask for or give an example of a situation that would involve a number of points of view. Ask students how the points of view in that situation would differ.
- Distribute the appropriate text and have students read it.
- Introduce the writing
- Return to the definition of point of view. Establish the point of view of the text. (Differentiate between the point of view of the author and the point of view used in the writing.)
- Mention that a number of different people could retell all or part of the information in the text. Ask students to brainstorm a list of possible points of view for the reading selection. (This is the WHO list.)
- Now ask students for options on what these people could tell. Start them off by suggesting one or two options. (This is the WHAT list.) Options may include:
- Retelling a specific incident or event from a different point of view.
- Expanding an incident or event, keeping the same point of view or switching it.
- Manipulating time: writing a scene that takes place before or after the events in the text, keeping the same point of view or switching it.
- Exploring a theme or concept implicit in the text in a completely original piece.
- Ask the students for other possibilities.
- Ask students for options on what form the writing could take. (This is the FORM or HOW list.) Options may include:
1. speech or sermon7. dream
2. first person narration8. interior monologue
3. diary entry9. essay
4. letter10. poem
5. dialogue11. story
6. newspaper article
- Invite students to write, choosing a point of view, some content, and a form. Suggest by return to the text to get ideas and information.
- Responding to writing in small groups.
- Tell students that they will be dividing into small groups to hear and respond to their writing. Offer the following questions as a way to begin responding to the pieces of writing. (These questions should be written on the board or duplicated for students.)
- (To the writer) Why did you choose that particular point of view and form?
- (To the group) What do you think is the writer’s focus in the piece?
- Which facts are important to the writer? Why?
- What insights/arguments developed from the original text?
- What questions do you have about the material covered in the text after hearing the piece?
- Divide students into groups to respond to the writing. In addition, ask each group to choose one writer to read to the entire class.
- Reconvene the class. Have some writers read their pieces aloud.
- Lead a brief discussion about what happened in the small groups. You might ask: What did you learn from the members of your group?
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