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First Person and Third Person

A 40-minute Grade 4 lesson on comparing first- and third-person narrations and the different points of view they allow.

First Person and Third Person is a free 40-minute Grade 4 English lesson plan for Common Core standard RL.4.6 — compare first-person and third-person narration. It is timed across 5 sections, gives the exact wording to use where the wording carries the meaning, names 3 misconceptions with the teaching move that addresses each, and ends with an exit ticket and a printable worksheet with its answer key.

Grade:
Grade 4
Length:
40 minutes
Standard:
RL.4.6

Grade 4 · Reading: Literature

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.

Objective

Students will be able to identify whether a story is narrated in first or third person and explain what that narration lets the reader know and what it keeps hidden.

Students are successful when they can

  • Identifies first or third person and quotes the pronouns that prove it.
  • Names one thing the narration lets the reader know.
  • Names one thing the narration cannot show, and says why.

What you need

  • "The Empty Hook" in two versions (below), first person and third person, one copy per pair
  • Four warm-up story openings on cards
  • A two-column sheet per student: "I can know" / "I cannot know"
  • The printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan

The lesson

Warm-up — who is speaking?

5 min
  1. Read four openings: "I had never seen snow before that morning." / "Marcus counted the steps to the stage: twelve." / "We ran, and we did not look back." / "Nobody in the village of Odd Hollow trusted the baker, and the baker trusted nobody back."
  2. Pairs label each first or third person and circle the pronoun that told them: I, we (first); Marcus, he, nobody, the baker (third).
  3. Write on the board: "First person = the narrator is in the story (I, me, we). Third person = the narrator is outside it (he, she, they, names)." The pronouns give it away in seconds, and that is the easy part.

Teach — access and blind spots

13 min
  1. Read the first-person version: "I knew the moment I saw the empty hook that Sam had taken my bike. My stomach dropped. I stomped across the yard, already planning exactly what I would say to him. It was so typical of Sam."
  2. Ask: "What do we get?" One head, completely — Ava's stomach drop, her plan, her opinion of Sam. Write in the "I can know" column. Then ask: "What can't we know?" What Sam is doing and thinking. Write in the "I cannot know" column.
  3. Read the third-person version: "Ava stared at the empty hook and stomped across the yard. Behind the shed, Sam was crouched over her bike with a patch kit, trying to fix the flat tire he had caused before she noticed." Ask what this gives that the first did not: the shed, Sam, his reason. Ask what it gives less of: we never hear Ava's thoughts, only see her stomp.
  4. Point out the important consequence: the first-person narrator was wrong. Sam had not taken the bike to ride; he was fixing it. "I knew" sounded certain, and the reader had no way to check. Direct access to a head is not the same as the truth.
  5. Rewrite one sentence live: "My stomach dropped" becomes "Ava's face fell." Ask what was lost (the feeling from inside) and what was gained (a view any watcher could check).
  6. Write the trade on the board: "First person: deep but narrow. Third person: wide but often shallower. No narration gives you everything."
“You know exactly what Ava thinks and nothing about anyone else. That is the deal first person makes. Now ask: what is she missing?”

Guided practice — rewrite and compare

12 min
  1. Give pairs a short first-person paragraph: "I slid the last cookie into my pocket. Nobody saw. At dinner, Mom asked who had been in the cookie jar, and I studied my peas very hard."
  2. Pairs rewrite it in third person. Then they fill both columns: what each version lets the reader know and what it hides.
  3. Expected: the first person gives the guilty feeling from inside but believes "Nobody saw," which might be untrue; the third person could show Mom noticing the crumbs on his shirt, which the narrator cannot.
  4. Pairs decide which narration they would choose for this story and why, using the columns. A strong answer: "third person, because the funny part is that Mom knows and he does not."
“Your narrator says nobody saw. Is that true, or is that just what he thinks?”

Independent practice

8 min
  1. Students complete the point-of-view page. Both extracts are printed on the sheet.
  2. For each extract they name the narration, quote the pronouns, and complete one "can know" and one "cannot know" line.

Close

2 min
  1. Ask: "Name one thing Ava, as a first-person narrator, could not tell you." Fish for "that Sam was fixing the tire" or "what Sam was thinking."

What goes wrong, and why

Each of these is a reasoning error rather than carelessness. The fix addresses the reasoning.

Says first person is always true: "Sam took the bike, she said so."

Why: First person sounds like a person speaking straight to you, and in real life we usually believe people describing their own experience. The student treats the narrator's certainty as proof.

Fix: Put the two versions of "The Empty Hook" side by side and ask: "Was Ava right?" The first-person narrator can be mistaken. Write "Direct access is not accuracy" on the board.

Says every third person knows everything: "Third person tells you all the thoughts."

Why: Many stories they have read are told by a narrator who does move between heads, so they generalize from the commonest examples.

Fix: Show the third-person "Empty Hook" and ask what Ava is thinking. It never says. Then ask whose thoughts we do get: none. Third person can be limited; check whose head you are actually in.

Names the narration and stops: "It is first person because it says I."

Why: Labeling is the familiar task from earlier grades, and it gets marked right. Nothing in the label tells them the question has a second half.

Fix: Make the two-column sheet compulsory with every label. "First person" alone earns half; the full answer names one thing it shows and one thing it hides.

If they are not there yet

  • Rewrite two sentences rather than a paragraph, with the pronouns to change already underlined.
  • Use extracts with an obvious narration and give the "I can know" column one example to start from.
  • Provide a pronoun card: first person (I, me, my, we, us) and third person (he, she, they, names) to check against.

If they finish early

  • Rewrite the first-person "Empty Hook" from Sam's point of view, in first person, and list what the reader now knows that Ava's version hid.
  • Write a four-sentence scene in first person where the narrator is wrong about something the reader can work out from the details.
  • Compare the two versions of the cookie paragraph and explain which narration makes the story funnier and which makes it more tense, with a quotation for each.

Exit ticket

"I waved at Kim across the hall, but she walked straight past me. She must be angry, I thought." What narration is this, and what can it not show you?

What to look for: First person ("I," "me"); it cannot show what Kim thinks or why she walked past, so "angry" might be wrong. A label alone means the can-know/cannot-know pair needs restating; trusting "She must be angry" means direct access is not accuracy needs revisiting.

Printable practice for RL.4.6

Free to print and copy, answer key included. Each sheet can generate a fresh set of problems for a retake.

Questions about First Person and Third Person

How long does the First Person and Third Person lesson take?

40 minutes, split across 5 timed sections: warm-up 5 min, teach 13 min, guided practice 12 min, independent practice 8 min, close 2 min. The minutes are stated per section and add up to the stated length, so the plan can be cut or extended at a section boundary rather than abandoned halfway.

Which standard does First Person and Third Person teach?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6 — RL.4.6, Reading: Literature for Grade 4: “Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.” In plain terms, compare first-person and third-person narration.

What do I need to teach this lesson?

"The Empty Hook" in two versions (below), first person and third person, one copy per pair, four warm-up story openings on cards, a two-column sheet per student: "I can know" / "I cannot know" and the printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan. Everything listed is either ordinary classroom equipment or a free printable from this site — there is nothing to buy and nothing to prepare beyond photocopying.

What mistakes should I expect in this lesson?

Three, each a reasoning error rather than carelessness: says first person is always true: "Sam took the bike, she said so."; says every third person knows everything: "Third person tells you all the thoughts." and names the narration and stops: "It is first person because it says I.". The plan gives the thinking behind each one and the teaching move that addresses the thinking rather than the symptom.

How do I know whether the lesson worked?

The exit ticket asks: “"I waved at Kim across the hall, but she walked straight past me. She must be angry, I thought." What narration is this, and what can it not show you?.” First person ("I," "me"); it cannot show what Kim thinks or why she walked past, so "angry" might be wrong. A label alone means the can-know/cannot-know pair needs restating; trusting "She must be angry" means direct access is not accuracy needs revisiting. That tells you whether the class needs a reteach or a thirty-second conversation before you plan tomorrow.

Is there a worksheet to go with First Person and Third Person?

Yes — 1 printable RL.4.6 worksheet, linked at the end of the plan and free like the rest of the site. Each one comes with an answer key and 25 versions, so the practice after the lesson can be a different paper on every desk.

Is First Person and Third Person free to use?

Yes. The plan, its printables and their answer keys are free to read, print and photocopy for your own class, with no account and no email capture. It was last reviewed on October 8, 2026. Please do not resell it or republish it as your own.

Last reviewed 2026-10-08. Aligned to RL.4.6 of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.