Fiction Writers

Based on short stories and novels, this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that in the 19th century, the American frontier brought both solutions and problems; and fiction writers as well as documentarians have portrayed the American frontier. The main activity of the lesson involves students writing essays addressing whether characters in the novels and short stories do or do not correspond with information students found from nonfiction sources. It includes objectives, materials, procedures, adaptations, discussion questions, evaluation methods, extension activities, annotations of suggested readings and web links, vocabulary, and related academic standards and benchmarks addressed in the lesson plan. The lesson plan also contains a description of a video clip related to the lesson, comprehension questions related to the video clip, and answers to those comprehension questions.