Curated OER
Historical Fiction: A Wealth of Interpretations
How can understanding the genre of historical fiction help your language arts class with literary analysis? Use this lesson to help young readers learn about historical fiction. After reading a selection from the "Dear America" or "My...
ReadWriteThink
Looking for the History in Historical Fiction: An Epidemic for Reading
Combine informational reading skills with fictional text in an innovative historical fiction lessons. After reading a fictional text related to diseases, class members read non-fictional text to gain knowledge about specific infectious...
EngageNY
Preparing to Write Historical Fiction: Determining Characteristics of the Genre
A language arts instructional activity helps young writers identify elements that make up historical fiction. First, it guides them through elements of fictional pieces with vocabulary cards. Then, pupils work collaboratively to...
Curated OER
Historical Agency in History Book Sets (HBS)
Study historical events by combining the study of historical fiction and non-fiction. Learners read about true past events in historical fiction novels and then research non-fiction accounts of the same events. What are some differences...
Curated OER
Timeline of Historical Fiction
Students create a historical fiction timeline. They review the literature through the perspective of history (writing prompts provided). Students create a book cover illustration to appear with the book review in the appropriate spot on...
EngageNY
Writer's Gallery and End of Unit 3 Assessment: On-Demand New Historical Fiction Narrative
Fourth-grade writers applaud their historical narrative writing pieces through a Writer's Gallery. First, they read an assigned classmate's work and leave a positive comment on a sticky note. Once learners have read a couple of people's...
Curated OER
A Light in the Storm
Examine the genre of historical fiction while reading A Light in the Storm. They extract events in chronological order to make a timeline. Then, they use information in the book important to the characters to create a presentation of an...
Crafting Freedom
Creating Original Historical Fiction Using Henry "Box" Brown's Narrative and Runaway Slave Ads
Young historians discover the experiences of runaway slaves after reading the brief biography and narrative excerpt of Henry "Box" Brown, who escaped slavery by having himself shipped away in a crate and popularized his flight in a...
Curated OER
Drawing Conclusions from Historical Fiction
Students read historical fiction. In this drawing conclusions lesson plan, students learn how to draw conclusions from text, specifically historical fiction. Students read Molly's Pilgrim and complete a graphic organizer where they...
Curated OER
Civil War Literature Circle
Historical fiction can be a valuable asset when learning about the past. Integrate several novels written about the Civil War into your social studies unit, with groups of four working collaboratively to comprehend the novel from...
Urban Education Exchange
Lessons and Units: The Watsons go to Birmingham—1963 5TH GRADE UNIT
Get ready to read The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 with a lesson about historical fiction. Spanning several centuries, the resource prompts learners to guess the historical era of a story based on a word or phrase in the text. In...
EngageNY
Peer Critique: Historical Accuracy of Ideas and Vocabulary
Promote collaboration in the classroom with a historical fiction instructional activity. Fourth graders partner up and read the other's narrative to give feedback on vocabulary choice and the accuracy of historical information. After...
Curated OER
Wagons West!
The first pioneers faced many obstacles on their journey west. Middle schoolers read different historical fiction texts (ideas are provided), make connections, and complete a detailed packet (included). Reading guides, journal ideas, and...
Curated OER
Wagons West!
Through learning about the Oregon Trail and Nebraska, learners evaluate the elements of historical fiction. Coming with a comprehensive bibliography, this lesson has your class learn about settlers traveling along the Oregon Trail,...
Scholastic
Thomas Jefferson and Monticello: An Introduction to Writing Historical Fiction
Thomas Jefferson is one of the most recognized names and faces in America—but is there more to the third president of the United States? Upper elementary and middle schoolers conduct research on Jefferson, his famous home at Monticello,...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Learning About the Historical and Geographical Setting of Esperanza Rising (Chapter 1: “Aguascalientes, Mexico, 1924”)
Set up your class to read Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, through a class read-aloud and exploration of the setting. The detailed instructional activity outlines each step. First, class members read over the first few pages and...
Carnegie Library
Creative Writing: Middle School Lesson Plan
Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing lesson. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers.
Penguin Books
An Educator’s Guide to Ruta Sepetys
Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Ruby's Wish (Bridges)
Jump into traditional Chinese culture with budding readers as they examine vocabulary in context through Shirin Yim Bridge's book Ruby's Wish. This book is read on YouTube if you don't have it on hand. Scholars are briefly introduced to...
Curated OER
Reliving History through Slave Narratives
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Mummies in the Morning Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphics
Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...
Curated OER
Discovering Language Arts-Intermediate Fiction
Explore the elements of science fiction. Students investigate the literary elements present in science fiction and write their own science fiction stories.
Curated OER
During Reading Strategies
"How important is freedom to you and your family?" The guiding question becomes much more powerful after your class reads and responds to a passage from a historical novel. While reading the passage, they complete a graphic organizer...
Curated OER
The Prince and the Pauper
Mark Twain, the famous American author, is often studied in the school system. Use "The Prince and the Pauper" to analyze the differences between the text and its video version. This lesson includes several culminating project ideas for...