How to Teach Point of View with I Am Every Good Thing

Hi, friends! I Am Every Good Thing is an amazing picture book, perfect for teaching your students about first person point of view! This blog post will explain how to use I Am Every Good Thing as a mentor text to teach point of view, how to get your free lesson plan download, and where you can find other blog posts about diverse picture books as mentor texts!

I Am Every Good Thing

First of all, you will enjoy reading the rhythmic, imaginative text of this vividly illustrated picture book with your students. This title would be a great read-aloud to start the school year, to affirm that you believe that ALL of your students are every good thing! They will be drawn in to the richly textured illustrations of energetic African American boys having fun as children while they dream of the future. Keep this book handy for students to read to themselves, so they can say all of those affirming words to themselves, on days when others may be sending negative messages their way.

This book trailer from the publisher will give you a sneak peek at the book.

Point of View

This book is also great for teaching first person point of view. First, you should introduce point of view by explaining that point of view means who is telling the story. Read I Am Every Good Thing once with your students, just for the joy of the story and to make sure students understand and connect with it. Then, read the book aloud a second time, stopping often to ask: WHO is telling this story? WHO is talking to us? What words tell us that the author chose first person point of view?

Next, move on to a practice activity.

1. Practice in a whole group first. Read aloud a short sentence from the text. Have students repeat that sentence with a partner, and tell their partner which word(s) tell us that the author chose a first person point of view. Read aloud another short sentence from the text. Have students tell that sentence to their partner, but in third person instead of first person point of view. The partner can respond by stating which words s/he heard that told him/her that the speaker chose a third person point of view.
2. Practice independently. Display a page from the book on the projection screen for students. On the Practice Sentences paper or Google Slide, students will copy the sentences from the story in the First Person box. Students will then revise those into third person sentences in the next box. Students who still need support can work with a partner.

You can grab the complete lesson plan here, as a free download from my TPT store!

Mentor Sentence

We all know that students need to see well-written sentences as models for their own writing. This book is full of great imagery, but here’s the sentence I would choose as a mentor sentence from I Am Every Good Thing: I am good to the core, like the center of a cinnamon roll. Students can brainstorm other things that are good to the core and write their own sentence, imitating the author. I am ___________, like _________. You may need to brainstorm to help students move beyond their favorite foods to other things that aren’t food.

Students can practice point of view and similes with the First Person Simile page/Google Slide that I’ve included with the free lesson plan!

Reflection

Ask students to reflect (either to a partner or to the whole group) how the first person and third person point of view seemed different, both in the story and in their own writing. They may talk about feeling closer and more connected to the narrator when they read sentences written in the first person point of view and feeling more distant from the narrator when they read sentences written in the third person point of view.

More Diverse Mentor Texts

I wrote this blog post as part of a blog hop of posts featuring diverse books as mentor texts. Each blog post includes a freebie focused on a specific comprehension or writing skill, taught from a diverse picture book mentor text. Check out all of our posts here.

Enter the diverse mentor texts giveaway here:

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