Net.Create Lesson PLans

Fact and Fiction

Are your students struggling to differentiate which parts of historical fiction are real and which were created by the author?

Use when you want students to:

  • helping students to determine which elements of plot are factual from history and which are elements of fiction that are added for the sake of the storyline.
  • examining characters, events, and locations for their potential historical contexts.

Meets ELA standards:

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.1
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.3

Disciplinary data literacy skills:

  • Data is relational, and hierarchical.
  • Data is interpreted, and we can even create it.
  • Data are not always static.

About this network

Are your students struggling to differentiate which parts of historical fiction are real and which were created by the author? When they read historical fiction, students can get confused about which story elements (plots, setting, characters) are historical events and which are part of the fictional plot. The Fact and Fiction network template supports students as they clarify which elements of a text rely on fact, fictional narrative, or both.

SUCCESS STORIES: Teachers suggested this type of network be created because students routinely struggled to differentiate between fact and fiction and this impacted their reading comprehension, making connections between ELA and history standards, and understanding of historical events.

TEXTS THAT WORK: Sources that have a mix of fiction and real-world people, places, things and events, including historical fiction novels, passages, or short stories

Play with a sample network

How should I use this in my classroom?

Network Details: What should my students and I be tracking?

For any network, students will track nodes (things) and edges (relationships between things), each of which will also have "attributes" (which include mandatory info like citations and optional info like extra notes).

Nodes (things being connected)

In this network, the nodes represent people, places, things, and events that happened in history and/or happen within the historical fiction book. The ‘fact/fiction’ attribute, which is required for each node/edge entry, is as important as the node and edge types.

  • Person or Group
    A person or group of people (real or fictional) including whether the person or group is in the book being read. Students should add themselves as this type of node. For example, when reading the book *The Book Thief*, a person node might be Liesel (the fictional main character of the book) or Adolf Hitler.

  • Thing
    A thing or object that plays a significant role in the book or in history including whether the thing is in the book being read. For example, when reading the book *The Book Thief*, a thing node might be "The Word Shaker" (a made-up book) or *Mein Kampf* (a real book), both of which are referenced in *The Book Thief*.

  • Event
    A significant event (real or fictional) including whether the event is in the book being read. For example, when reading the book *The Book Thief*, an event node might be "Book Burnings".

  • Place
    A significant place (real or fictional) including whether the place is in the book being read. For example, when reading the book *The Book Thief*, a Place node might be Molching, Germany (the fictional town where Liesel lives) or Auschwitz (a real place).

Edges (connection types)

In this network, the edges show connections between the people, places, things, and events that are the nodes. This includes noting when someone participated in something, was aware of something, or when two things are associated with each other.

What learning goals does this template support?

Disciplinary Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.1Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.3Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
Disciplinary Data Literacy Goals
Data is relational, and hierarchical.Students will cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including identifying internal conflicts in the data collected from different kinds of historical sources.
Data is interpreted, and we can even create it.Students will learn to integrate individual data points and aggregate data patterns. Individual data points may inform certain questions, while patterns within and across datasets help answer others.
Data are not always static.We are changing this data as we discuss our interpretations and revise them.

Lesson-Specific Resources and Examples

The following files are in PowerPoint .PPTX and Word .DOCX format. If you use Google Docs, you should be able to import these into Google Slides and Google Docs with minimal formatting changes.

Fact and Fiction in The Book Thief

How to integrate this lesson into your classroom: This network could be used for one class period or on an ongoing basis while reading a novel over the course of a few weeks.

General Net.Create Tips, Tricks and Documentation

Quick Tips

Citations matter!The Provenance tab can help your students find and vet evidence.
Your comments can guide students.Use the comment feature to call student attention to specific actions they can take to understand the content and data-literacy learning you're doing
Break data entry and analysis into two lessonsNode-and-edge entry on day one can give you time to focus on student reading comprehension. A second lesson using node/edge gravity, tables and the "Analysis" tab can help with content analysis and data-literacy learning. Check out the “Why Use Networks” slide in the slide deck in Downloadable Resources section below.
Treat mistakes as valuable data-literacy and content-learning moves.If you see nodes or edges that don’t help with your lesson, point them out and help students find a way to revise them to address the lesson plan.
Remember that data are about individual people.Chat with your students about how to be respectful of their peers as they enter network data.

Downloadable Resources

Net.Create User Guide

Net.Create Lesson PLans

The Net.Create Team

Net.Create helps teachers and students effectively connect humanities and social-studies learning to data-literacy learning.

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