Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← English
EnglishWonder: kindness and viewpoint24 min★★ difficulty

First-person narration and seeing through August

Wonder is told in the first person, but not just by August. The novel hops between narrators, and the moment it does, you realise how little you knew him when only he was speaking.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Reading: Study setting, plot and characterisation, and the effects of these on the reader

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Study setting, plot and characterisation, and the effects of these on the reader

Key learning points

  • • August's first-person voice
  • • The switch to other narrators
  • • Kindness as a plotted choice
  • • The precepts

This lesson at a glance

  • 24 minutes
  • 16 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

settingcharacterisationeffectsreaderaugust

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 16 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 16

Watch first

First-person narration and seeing through August

An English teaching video on this topic from ClickView. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Study setting, plot and characterisation, and the effects of these on the reader

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 16

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · August's first-person voice

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 16

Learn

August's first-person voice

August (Auggie) narrates his own story, and his voice is funny, scared and precise. First person lets us feel the cost of being stared at from the inside. But it also traps us in his view: we know what he sees and fears, not what the others are really thinking.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 16

Learn

The switch to other narrators

The novel then gives chapters to Via (his sister), Jack, Summer and others. The first switch is a shock of recognition: a scene that was only painful in Auggie's view becomes complicated in another's. The technique teaches the reader that no single viewpoint contains the whole truth.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 16

Quick check

What is the effect of August's first-person narration?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 16

Quick check

Why does the switch to other narrators matter?

7

Reset break

Part 7 of 16

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 16

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Kindness as a plotted choice

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 16

Learn

Kindness as a plotted choice

In Wonder, kindness is not a personality trait — it is a decision a character makes and sometimes reverses. Jack is kind, then cruel under peer pressure, then brave again. Plotting kindness as a choice (not a nature) is the novel's moral engine: it asks the reader to choose it too.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 16

Learn

The precepts

The English teacher gives monthly 'precepts', short mottos to live by. These refrains structure the moral life of the school. They are also a device: they let the novel state its themes out loud, so the reader can test the characters (and themselves) against the words.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 16

Quick check

How does the novel treat kindness?

12

Quick check

Part 12 of 16

Quick check

What do the monthly 'precepts' allow the novel to do?

13

Challenge round

Part 13 of 16

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 16

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

____ (Auggie) narrates his own story, and his voice is funny, scared and precise.

The technique teaches the ____ that no single viewpoint contains the whole truth.

15

Mastery quiz

Part 15 of 16

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: First-person narration and seeing through August

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. What is the effect of August's first-person narration?

  2. 2. Why does the switch to other narrators matter?

  3. 3. How does the novel treat kindness?

  4. 4. What do the monthly 'precepts' allow the novel to do?

16

Lesson round-up

Part 16 of 16

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Extract

The last bus

The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.

She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.

Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.

Original extract written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
  2. How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
  3. Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.

  • Reading response

    Reading

    Read the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.

    2 paragraphs (PEE)

  • Extended writing

    Writing

    Write your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.

    250–350 words

  • Reading log

    Reading

    Note the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.

    20 minutes' reading

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    Study setting, plot and characterisation, and the effects of these on the reader

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