Narrative Voice: Build Understanding Through Practice

Narrative voice plays a central role in shaping the way a story is told and understood. When students learn to identify and experiment with different points of view, they begin to see how perspective changes the way readers connect with characters and events.

This resource pack includes seven worksheets where students practice rewriting short passages in different narrative voice. They are also guided to answer thoughtful questions about how each shift in narration affects the reader’s interpretation, such as:

• Which version of the passage makes the reader feel more connected to the main character’s emotions?
• What new information can the reader learn from a third person omniscient narration that they don’t learn from a first person narration?
• How does the reader’s understanding of the scene change when the perspective shifts from one character to another?

This resource downloads as a black-and-white PDF or editable Google Slides file. Answers are also included in the download. By actively comparing narrative voice in literary texts, students will develop confidence in recognizing narrative choices and begin to apply these skills in their own creative writing.

Practical Tips for Exploring Narrative Voices

Are you looking for ways to maximize student engagement when working with these narrative voices worksheets? Here are some ideas from our expert team:

• Model the process by working through the first passage together as a class, highlighting how perspective changes details and tone.
• Encourage annotation by having the students underline or circle words in the text that show the narrator’s point of view.
• Differentiate for ability levels by providing sentence starters for less confident writers, or challenge advanced students to write a passage in multiple points of view.
• Make it interactive by pairing students up to rewrite passages collaboratively, then compare how versions differ across the class.

Voices and Narration: Download to Get Started! 

Are you ready to teach voices and narration without the stress of extra preparation? Use the Download button above to access your preferred version of this resource. Please note that Google users will need to make a personal copy of the file before accessing it.

As this resource contains answer pages, we recommend printing one copy of the entire file, then selecting and removing the pages you wish to photocopy for the students.

With clear instructions and scaffolded tasks, this resource is designed to slot easily into your existing ELA curriculum and provide ongoing value across multiple lessons.

This resource was created by Kaylyn Chupp, a teacher in Florida and a Teach Starter collaborator.

More Voice in Storytelling Resources

Click below to explore more teacher-created, curriculum-aligned resources to use when exploring voice in storytelling with your upper elementary students.

[resource:5171856] [resource:5171321] [resource:5171696]