Connecting+Fact+and+Historical+Fiction


 * Summary** **and Rationale **

The "Connecting Fact and Historical Fiction" literacy strategy (Lenski et al., 2011: 137) asks students to verify the historical accuracy of events, ideas, and people included in works of historical fiction. Through this strategy, students make continued connections between the stories they are reading and the history of the world that surrounds them. Furthermore, this strategy may facilitate a personal connection between students' lives and the lives of their community and the "fictional" accounts they explore in literary texts.

//Directions//
 * 1) **Select** a story, short story, or passage appropriate for the social studies curriculum.
 * 2) **Preview** the events that take place in the work of historical fiction.
 * 3) Students **read** the fictional text.
 * 4) **Hand out** the //Connecting Fact and Historical Fiction// reproducible (see attached).
 * 5) **Locate** information regarding the event(s) or people identified above in the social studies text.
 * 6) Using the hand out, students must write down a list of facts surrounding the event in the story, the verification of those events in the textbook, and a place to mark (e.g. with a check) events that require further investigation due to lack of information in the textbook.


 * Example**

The text //An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian// is a novel by Sherman Alexie about an adolescent boy growing up on a Native American reservation in outside of Spokane, Washington. The text, though fictional, covers a number of issues relevant to both the history of American Indians and the current struggles for people living on reservations currently. Using the //Connecting Facts and Historical Fiction// strategy, students could be asked to connect themes and issues faced by and commented on by the protagonist, Arnold, to historical facts covered in the course textbook, //History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals//. The attached file provides an example of how students would begin to fill out the reproducible.