Students will differentiate between fiction and non-fiction with  "The Story of the Milky Way" by Joseph Bruchac.   Though the book is a folktale, it addresses elements of fiction and non-fiction.  Students will then create a graphic organizer of fact and fictional elements from the story in Inspiration and summarize with an exit slip answering the Essential Question.

Students will view an Anticipation Guide via Microsoft PowerPoint as an activating strategy. The students will view the slide show that shows several examples that are fact and fiction.

Students will be asked to give a 'thumbs up' for slides that show things that are real, and a thumbs down when they think the slide shows something make believe.

After completing the activating strategy, students will be asked how they made the decisions to give a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down.’

After giving the students the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas, we will discuss the term 'real' and how NON-FICTION means the same, things that can really happen. Then we will talk about some things from the slides that are make-believe, such as people flying or pigs talking. Discuss how these things cannot happen or did not happen, so they are make-believe or FICTION.

Then explain to the students that they will be listening to the story The Story of the Milky Way by Joseph Bruchac, and they are to be listening for things that are NON-FICTION (real) and things that are FICTION (make-believe). During the read aloud, the teacher will check for understanding by having students offer examples from the story that illustrate something FICTION or NON-FICTION. (Some examples of nonfiction include the people storing corn for the winter and hiding to catch the thief. Some examples of fiction include the dog jumping into the sky and spilling the corn to make the Milky Way.) 

After listening to the story, the students will complete a graphic organizer in the computer lab. Using a teacher-made template created using Inspiration software, students will write three examples of NON-FICTION and three examples of FICTION from the story according to the appropriate boxes in the graphic organizer.

Exit Slips- Students will be asked to write a sentence explaining how we tell the difference between fiction and non-fiction.  The expected response is that FICTION describes things that are make-believe and didn’t really happen, and NON-FICTION describes things that are real and did happen.

The Story of the Milky Way by Joseph Bruchac

PowerPoint slides showing pictures of things that are make-believe and things that are real

Inspiration template