Historical Fiction/Non Fiction Activity

As a child I remember feeling disinterest in history lessons, partly due to the required memorization of dates and the only learning coming straight out of the textbook. Historical fiction picture books are a wonderful way to introduce interest in actual events that took place in history. I like to think of these books as a teaser that draws the child into history through illustrations and interesting stories.  Once the students are intrigued, an introduction of a non fiction book on the same topic could be read to teach the accurate accounts.  An example I will give is the life of Emily Dickinson.  This would be a great language arts/social studies integration lesson, possibly done in April for National Poetry Month.

Historical Fiction Picture Book                     Non Fiction Book

Emily by Michael Bedard                              Emily Dickinson: A Biography by Milton Meltzer                    

In the book Emily a little girl moves across the street from a yellow house. In the yellow house lives a woman the neighborhood calls "The Myth".  The little girl becomes intrigued with the woman in the yellow house.  The woman is Emily Dickinson and the girl's mother goes to the house and gifts Emily with lily bulbs and receives a poem in return.  The story is about the little girl intrigued yet fearful of meeting the woman and the realization that the woman may be equally scared.  In the back of the book the author gives a brief biography of Emily.  

In comparison Emily Dickinson: A Biography is a narrated biographical account of Emily's life and time.  There are actual family profile pictures and drawings of Emily's town.  The biography gives a real life glimpse into who Emily was, her inspirations for her poetry, and ideas on her reclusive nature.  

Activity:

Grade: 5

Teacher would read aloud Emily to the class and host a discussion of thoughts on the book.

After the read aloud students would break into groups of four and read selected passages out of the Emily Dickinson Biography.  The selections would be predetermined and would give an overview of her life from birth to death.  Students would be asked to write down interesting facts about Emily they find in their passage on a large sheet of paper or poster board.  Each group will present the information they found in their passage with the class.  In the end as a class we could do a Venn diagram and compare and contrast characteristics found about Emily in the read aloud and the biography.  The students could independently write an acrostic poem about Emily using her first name as a closing piece to the lesson.