What Is Point of View
Point of view is the perspective from which a story is told. In practical terms, it determines whose eyes and mind the reader experiences the story through. The three main types are first person (I, we), second person (you), and third person (he, she, they). Understanding point of view matters because it directly affects how a reader interprets events, emotions, and reliability of information in a text.
Why It Matters for Reading Instruction
Point of view is a foundational comprehension skill that bridges decoding and deeper understanding. Struggling readers often decode words accurately but miss how narrator reliability shapes meaning. A character's biased account (first person) presents facts differently than an omniscient narrator (third person). This distinction matters for reading levels and assessment.
Many structured literacy programs, including Orton-Gillingham approaches, build point of view instruction after students master phonics and basic sentence comprehension, typically around grades 2-3. For students with dyslexia or documented reading disabilities, explicit instruction in identifying point of view reduces comprehension gaps. IEP teams often include point of view analysis as a measurable comprehension goal, with progress tracked through regular reading samples and questioning protocols.
How to Teach and Identify Point of View
- First person: Reader sees through one character's perspective with direct access to their thoughts. Reliable for emotion but limited in scope (example: "I didn't know what was happening outside my window").
- Third person limited: The most common narrative voice in children's literature. Reader follows one character's perspective without direct access to other characters' minds (example: "Sarah wondered why her friend wasn't speaking to her").
- Third person omniscient: Reader has access to multiple characters' thoughts and motivations. Teaches students that narrators can see the full picture (example: "Sarah felt hurt, but Tom was too embarrassed to explain the truth").
- Identifying markers: Look for pronouns (I, you, he, she) and whether characters' internal thoughts are revealed. Ask: "Whose thoughts can we read?"
Point of View and Comprehension Strategies
Explicit comprehension instruction should include questioning about perspective. Ask students: "How would this story change if told by a different character?" This reframing task strengthens inferential thinking and helps readers distinguish between fact and opinion. For readers with dyslexia, multisensory approaches work well, such as color-coding pronouns or acting out scenes from different character viewpoints.
Connection to Author's Purpose is critical: authors choose point of view deliberately to create specific effects. Teaching students to notice this choice helps them see reading as active interpretation rather than passive word recognition.
Common Questions
- Why does my child struggle with point of view if they can read the words? Decoding and comprehension require separate skills. A child may sound fluent while missing that the narrator has a limited perspective. This gap often shows up in reading comprehension assessments around grade 3-4.
- How do I address point of view in an IEP? Include specific, measurable goals like "Student will identify the narrator's perspective in grade-level texts with 80% accuracy across five consecutive trials." Track this through reading responses and comprehension checks, not worksheets alone.
- What's the difference between point of view and perspective? Point of view is technical, referring to grammatical voice (first, second, third person). Perspective is broader, including the narrator's beliefs, biases, and interpretations. You can teach point of view first, then layer perspective as a more complex concept.