Can I stump you??

Last week I wanted my students to practice identifying and writing complete sentences.  Modeling first, I wrote two complete sentences and one fragment. 

Example:

1. Today I went to the movies.
2. I saw.
3. I bought popcorn at the movies.

The class was to determine which sentence was a fragment, find the fiction.  Individually the students chose their answers on a sticky note, and then together the team came together with a consensus. They found the fiction, the one that was not a complete sentence.  After students understood what I was looking for, what they were to accomplish, they set off to make their own.

Reading Content Area – Find the Fiction

In a content area such as Science or Social Studies assign each person at a team a separate passage to read. After they have read their assigned passage they write two facts and one fiction. When sharing with their teammates they are guiding them to make a prediction since their partners haven’t read. This gives the leader of the Find the Fiction the opportunity to teach the rest of the team.

Hot Tipz - Find the Fiction

My students have proved to me that Find the Fiction can be a hard concept to figure out. At times I have found myself trying to explain Find the Fiction, and then expecting my students to understand instantly. Students get confused with the terms, trying to relate them to fiction and nonfiction text. When this happens I redirect students to look for the “one” that doesn’t fit. So…..model, practice, model, practice. Practice may include a team, partner, or individual created Find the Fiction, but keep the content fun until they learn the structure.

Find the Fiction

When students create their own Find the Fiction, they have to apply higher order thinking skills.  Not only do they have to write down two examples of what you have taught, they have to write down something that is wrong.  Students are thinking backwards, and having to make the fiction close enough to what is right so as not to give the answer away too quickly.  Also, this is a very easy way to check if a student understands a concept.