Transcript

One of our school initiatives this year was to teach children about authors' point of view in their writing. So, as the children are reading, we're asking them to look at how things are described, and what the author is bringing to the text, and what the author wants you to think about what they're writing. And one of the things that we talked about in terms of point of view is looking at things from different perspectives. So we were able to tie in art with that, with our one-point-perspective drawings. And then I read a book called Duck Rabbit, and this book is great because it's actually the same image, but seen from two perspectives. So it gets at the idea that from different viewpoints, from different positions, from different experiences, and different personalities you're going to see different things even those sometimes it is both a duck and a rabbit. So here we have "wait, listen, did you hear that? I head duck sounds. Quack quack." And here's the beak of the duck. "That's funny, I distinctly heard rabbit sounds. Sniff Sniff." So things can be both from different perspectives. 

And a great series that I just discovered called Sources of Conflict really outlines different articles from different perspectives, and this is history, looked at from two different viewpoints. So this book is about the Vikings. So we have early exploration tied in, and this side of the text has a critical view of the Vikings. They're coming in a violent way, taking things and marauding, pillaging, and if we flip the book over we get the different perspective. So here the Viking is presented in a more heroic way. 

The students in the class the other day were reading the two different articles from this book, one was called Viking Clashes, and we did a shared writing activity where I was writing at the board and the students were giving me ideas. They had each read the article and we came up with a couple of main points from the article and how the author's perspective had influenced how he had written the text. So, what we got from the group was, the Vikings were aggressive and sneaky, and the proof, because proof is really important, you have to be able to refer to something in the text to support your opinion, was that they had attacked and killed eight aboriginals who had been sleeping; doesn't sound very brave. 

The second main point that the students came up with was that the Vikings failed in the new world, they had tried to build a colony but they had ultimately failed. And then I flipped the book over and then we have Vikings in Vineland. So even the title shows what the perspective of the author is, and here the Vikings are great adventurers. They are determined, they kept returning and returning, and in this article the author has left out that they ultimately failed but talks about how they were so determined and kept coming back. He also focuses on how brave they were, they were great warriors and the author refers to them as fierce fighters, and they acquired wealth for their country, and they made history. So it is more of a positive viewpoint, and here we have the negative viewpoint. 

Something I like to focus on as well is not only the same event as it's presented by two viewpoints, but also what's left out. So here we have the idea that they're attacking aboriginals while they're sleeping. But that's left out of the article, so what's missing sometimes is as important as what the author chooses to present.

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