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Comparing Key Ideas and Details in Fiction and Nonfiction

Lesson Plan

Comparing Key Ideas and Details in Fiction and Nonfiction

Objectives

Students will explore the differences between fiction and nonfiction texts. Students will:

  • identify characteristics of fiction and nonfiction.
  • distinguish between examples of fiction and nonfiction texts.

Essential Questions

  • How do strategic readers create meaning from informational and literary texts?
  • What is this text really about?
  • How does interaction with text provoke thinking and response?

Vocabulary

  • Fiction: Any story that is the product of imagination rather than a documentation of fact. Characters and events may be based on real life, but the story is a creation of the author.
  • Nonfiction: Writing that is not fictional; designed to explain, argue, instruct, or describe rather than entertain.
  • Literary Elements: The essential techniques used in literature (e.g., characterization, setting, plot, theme).
  • Characterization: The method an author uses to reveal characters and their various personalities.
  • Inference: A judgment based on reasoning rather than on direct statement in a text.
  • Plot: The structure of a story. The sequence in which the author arranges the events in a story.
  • Setting: The time and place in which a story unfolds.
  • Recount: To retell a story in detail.

Duration

 

40–90 minutes/1–2 class periods


Prerequisite Skills

Prerequisite Skills haven't been entered into the lesson plan.

Materials

  • Lost in the Woods by Carl. R. Sams II. EDCO Publishing, 2005. (Stranger in the Woods or First Snow in the Woods by the same author would also work.)
  • Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship by Isabella Hatkoff. Scholastic Press, 2006. (Owen & Mzee: The Language of Friendship or Owen & Mzee: Best Friends by the same author would also work.)
  • Mr. Peabody’s Apples by Madonna. Callaway, 2003.
  • The above texts were selected because they are clear examples of fiction and nonfiction.
  • Alternative books should be clearly fiction or nonfiction to help students practice differentiating between the two. Suggested titles include the following:
    • Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. Atheneum, 1982.
    • Weather by Lorrie Mack. DK Children, 2004.

Teachers may substitute other books to provide a range of reading and level of text complexity.

  • several magazine articles and stories without any illustrations
  • chart paper

Related Unit and Lesson Plans

Related Materials & Resources

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Formative Assessment

  • View

    The goal of this lesson is to build on students’ understanding of the differences between fiction and nonfiction. Students discover that some books have characteristics of both fiction and nonfiction.

    • To assess students’ grasp of the concepts, read a book to the class. Then ask students to hold a card with F for fiction or N for nonfiction under their chin so that only you can see it. Take note of students who display the wrong answer and confer with them to find out the thinking process they use to determine whether a book is fiction or nonfiction. Provide additional instruction if needed.
    • Give students two texts. Have them read and evaluate each one, distinguishing whether it is fiction or nonfiction and providing evidence from the text to support their answers. Students can provide their information in the form of a chart, bulleted list, or paragraph.
    • Observe students during their discussions with partners. Evaluate students’ ability to do the following:
      • Identify characteristics of fiction and nonfiction.
      • Distinguish between examples of fiction and nonfiction.
      • Explain how to determine whether a book is fiction or nonfiction.
      • Discuss why an author would choose one format over another.

Suggested Instructional Supports

  • View
    Scaffolding, Active Engagement, Modeling, Explicit Instruction
    W: Review the characteristics of fiction and nonfiction and expand students’ knowledge by distinguishing between examples of fiction and nonfiction texts..
    H: Have students work together to create a chart listing characteristics of fiction and nonfiction and indicate how nonfiction texts are organized.
    E: Help students determine whether books are fiction or nonfiction based on evidence from the text.
    R: Provide opportunities for students to discuss their decisions with a partner and then share with the larger group. Encourage students to defend their decision or to change it.
    E: Observe students to assess their understanding of fiction and nonfiction texts. Give students an opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
    T: Provide opportunities for students to show that they identify fiction and nonfiction texts through an independent activity and through small-group and large-group participation.
    O: The learning activities in this lesson provide for large-group instruction and discussion, small-group exploration, partner interaction, and individual application of the concepts.

     

Instructional Procedures

  • View

    Focus Question: How does knowing the difference between key ideas and details of  fiction and nonfiction affect how we read a book?

    Post two sheets of chart paper on the board; label one “Fiction” and the other “Nonfiction.” Ask, “What is fiction text?” Write students’ ideas under the appropriate heading. (Examples: make-believe stories; stories that have characters, setting, and events; stories in which animals talk)

    Ask students, “What is nonfiction text?” Write students’ ideas under the appropriate heading. (Examples: books that are true, books that tell about facts, books that are about real people) “How can nonfiction text be organized? (comparison, cause/effect, or sequence)

    Tell students, “I am going to read a book to you. Decide if it is a fiction book or a nonfiction book.” Read aloud Lost in the Woods. Ask partners to discuss whether the book is fiction or nonfiction. Tell students to refer to the chart of characteristics. Have students state a key idea or detail that indicates if the text is fiction or nonfiction. Explain that this is a fictional text, even though it has photos. Ask, “What makes this a fiction book?” (It is a made-up story. The animals act like people.) Ask, “Why did the author choose to write about this topic using fiction rather than nonfiction?”

    Tell students, “I am going to read another book. Decide if you think it is fiction or nonfiction.” Read Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship. (Don’t tell students the title.) Ask partners to discuss whether the book is fiction or nonfiction. Again, have students refer to the chart of characteristics. Also, have students identify key ideas and details that support that the text is nonfiction. Discuss. Explain that although this book has characters, a plot, and a setting, it is a nonfiction book. Ask, “What makes this a nonfiction book?” (It is a true story.) Ask, “Why did the author choose this format to tell about Owen and Mzee?”

    Display a variety of fiction and nonfiction books. Have students choose a book to read. Some books may require that students read them from cover to cover, while other books may lend themselves to a skim-and-scan method of reading, with which you may need to help students. While students are deciding if their books are fiction or nonfiction, walk around the room to determine whether students understand the differences between the two kinds of texts.

    On a sheet of paper, have students write whether they think their book is fiction or nonfiction and why. Encourage them to provide evidence from the text to support their choice and to indicate how the nonfiction texts are organized. Ask partners to switch books and to read each other’s book. Have partners discuss whether they think the books are nonfiction or fiction. You may wish to have students repeat this activity a few times with different partners.

    Encourage students to share which type of book they think they have and why they think so. If anyone disagreed with his or her partner, discuss why the partner disagreed, and go through the book to decide if it is fiction or nonfiction.

    Ask students if they would like to change any of the ideas they listed on the chart at the beginning of the lesson. For example, students have discovered that fiction books may have photos and that nonfiction books may have characters, a setting, and a plot. Point out that some books may have characteristics of both fiction and nonfiction.

    Extension:

    • For students who need additional practice, suggest that they ask themselves the following questions:
      • Could the story really happen? If the story could not happen, it is fiction.
      • Did the story really happen? If the story really happened, it is nonfiction.
      • How is the story organized? If it has characters and a setting, it may be fiction or nonfiction. If the animals are talking, it is fiction. If it is organized by comparison, cause/effect, or sequence, it is nonfiction.
      • If the story could happen but did not, it is probably fiction.
    • Give students copies of magazine articles and stories with no illustrations. Have students read the text and determine if it is fiction or nonfiction and tell why.
    • Have students who are ready to move beyond the standard choose one of the texts as a mentor text and write a fiction piece and a nonfiction piece that mirrors the mentor text. Discuss how the writing process differs depending on what students are writing.

Related Instructional Videos

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02/28/2013
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