Fiction vs Non-Fiction

Fiction: Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

NonFiction State Books about the 50 states by unknown authors

Supportive Features:   o Story Elements: Characters, setting, problem, events, solution   o Familiar narrative flow of story: beginning, middle, end      o Age appropriate. Tom gets into trouble and enjoys adventure which is charming and entertaining to most ten and eleven year olds :)      Challenging Features:   o Vocabulary- unfamiliar words   o Length and size of text   o Southern dialect used, terminology and word choice very foreign to ELL students who live in the Midwestern states.   o Setting of the story: the book was written in the late 1800s, the time and place of the story may be difficult for English Language Learners to understand and make connections to.   o Idioms and metaphors are used throughout the story and can be very difficult for the reader to understand

Supportive Features:   o Pictures to support text   o Factual information   o Text features: table of contents, glossary, index, etc.   o Large print   o Photo captions o Highlighted vocabulary terms the reader is being introduced to o Quick facts sheet at the beginning Challenging Features:   o Vocabulary and names of things particular to a state the student does not live in   o Unknown geographical topics   o Historical references the reader may not be familiar with or have background information to help understand the topic.