Good Night, Owl

Learning intention:

I am learning to recognise that we all have different experiences so that I can consider different points of view.

 

Success criteria:

• I can identify the point of view of the text and use textual evidence for my answer
• I can recognise that the owl’s point of view would be different from the child in the poem
• I can use the text and my imagination to guess what the owl’s point of view might be, and use my ideas to answer questions.

 

Essential Knowledge:

More information about telling a story from a particular point of view can be found in the English Textual Concepts video Point of View.

 

Read the poem aloud to the class and ask students who’s point of view it is written from (first person - the child) and how we can tell (the use of me, my, I). Ask what they can identify about the character’s point of view in the poem. Suggestions may include:

• They are frustrated from not being able to get to sleep
• They feel the owl is watching them
• They believe the owl is trying to communicate with them
• They are annoyed by the noisiness of the owl

Discuss what the owl’s point of view may be and why it would see things differently. Students should then work in pairs with one student at a time pretending to be a journalist and the other pretending to be an owl (they should take turns in each role). The journalist should interview the owl using the following questions as well as some of their own:

• Why were you watching the child in the poem?
• What made you curious about them?
• What were you trying to communicate with them?
• What do you see in the dark?

Instruct students to write their answers to these questions in their books. Once all interviews are completed, have students share some of their answers with the class to compare student ideas about the owl’s point of view.