Thematic Unit: Life, Love, and Learning - Keeping it Real with Nonfiction

Introduction

text annotation indicator A nonfiction word art picture of Abraham Lincoln's face. Nonfiction opens the door into a world of reality. Each different nonfiction text reveals extraordinary ideas and concepts regarding facts that people may not know or understand. By opening an autobiography, biography, or memoir, readers learn the truth regarding real people and actual events. Learning the truth about the past can help prevent the same problems in the future. Nonfiction helps each reader face reality and understand the unknown. The Watsons Go to Birmingham -1963 falls under the genre of historical fiction.

Essential Questions

What is nonfiction?
How are fiction and nonfiction similar and different?
What is the purpose of reading and understanding nonfiction texts?
What are autobiographies, biographies, and memoirs?
What does nonfiction show us about our own lives?
What do nonfiction texts reveal about the time period of the text?
What reading strategies help us find meaning in a nonfiction text?

Key Terms

Genre: The term used for a type or category of literature.
Fiction: A genre of literature invented with the imagination.
Nonfiction: A genre of literature that is true and based on real things, people, events, and places.
Historical fiction: A genre of literature including a setting that is usually real and drawn from history and may contain actual historical persons and events, but the main characters tend to be fictional.
Memoir: An autobiography focusing on a specific time period or experience in a person’s life.
Biography: The story of someone’s life written by another person.
Autobiography: The story of someone’s life written by that particular person.
Chronological order: The arrangement of events following one after another in time.
Cultural context: Understanding the behaviors, beliefs, and characteristics of a particular social, ethnic, or age group that may be relevant to understanding the meaning of the story.
Historical context: Understanding the political and social events of a time period that may be relevant to understanding the meaning of the story.
Theme: The meaning behind the story.
Tone: The attitude of the writer conveyed through writing.
Dialect: A particular form of a language or accent that is peculiar to a specific region or social group.

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