Lesson Aim: What is Realistic Fiction?
Several fiction titles from realistic and fantasy genre.
Fiction, realistic, fantasy
Engage students’ attention by asking the following questions:
What is fiction? (Possible responses: a made up story, a story that is not true…)
What does real mean? (Possible responses: true, not made up, possible, believable…)
What is realistic fiction? (Have students make a guess and acknowledge their responses)
Realistic comes from the word real. Realistic means something that seems true or believable. Realistic fiction is a type of fiction story that can possibly happen in real life. Like any other fiction story, realistic fiction is also a made up story but the characters and events in the story seem to be real or believable. The plot and events in the story relate to real life happenings.
The following elements are present in realistic fiction.
- Characters act like real people
- Events in the story can happen in real life
- Character’s feelings and behavior are like real people
Teacher will display the front cover of a fantasy story. Teacher will then do a picture walk of the story and ask the following questions to help students decide if the story is going to be realistic or fantasy.
Do the characters look believable? Is it possible to see such characters in real life?
Do the characters actions and feelings look real?
Do the events or things happening in the story look realistic? Can they happen in real life?
Teacher will then display a realistic story and use the same process to help students identify the correct genre.
As a wrap up, teacher will ask,
What is realistic fiction? How is realistic fiction different from fantasy? Students will then share out what they have learned about realistic fiction and explain how realistic fiction is different from fantasy.