Net.Create Middle School Activities

Fact/Fiction Network Overview

In this 7th-grade lesson plan, students will be introduced to the novel 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak. Students will interact with and add to network visualizations that represent connections between factual and fictional events, places, and people from the novel.

Lesson Overview

Resources

  • Net Create: Fact/Fiction Network

Learning Target/Goal

Students will identify and analyze the difference between historical facts and fictional events during World War 2 using the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Standards

Make inferences and draw logical conclusions from the content and structures of informational texts, including comparison and contrast, problem and solution, claims and evidence, cause and effect, description, and sequencing. Aligns with (6th grade “Critical Literacy Reception” standards in Alabama

Lesson Background

In this 7th-grade lesson plan, students will be introduced to the novel ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak. Students will interact with and add to network visualizations that represent connections between factual and fictional events, places, and people from the novel.

Lesson Plan: Section 1: Prologue

Before

The templated version of the Fact/Fiction Network includes factual events, people, places, and general knowledge that appear in the opening sections of The Book Thief. The network will be presented to students with the factual content in the network as nodes.

Before presenting the students with the network, check the included nodes and add/remove nodes as appropriate for your students.

  • If World War 2 has been previously taught to students, connect with the previous history teacher to get a list of events, people, places, general knowledge, etc. that student might already be familiar with (5-10 additional nodes recommended)
  • Add/remove nodes from the sample network based on which portions of The Book Thief will be covered in class. Add factual events, people, places, and general knowledge from the portions of the book that will be covered.

During

Give students the opportunity to explore the nodes that are currently in the network and the connections. Discuss:

  • What do you notice about this network?
    • Prompts:
      • Aggregation: What is central to the network? Remember you can look at the nodes table as well as the graph.
      • Variability: What variation is there in what specific characters do / don’t know?
      • What attributes does each node have? What do these attributes tell us?
      • Review the parts of The Book Thief that students have already read, discussing key events, places, and characters.
      • Use the “Fade” filter to filter for whether “In the Book?” contains “Yes” and invite students to share what they remember about a person, place, event, or thing that has appeared in the book.
      • Also ask what it might mean that some things are not in the book - are they still relevant?
  • Based on the previous discussion, demonstrate adding a few fiction nodes to the network (e.g., Liesel, Himmel Street).
    • Resource: Our team put together this table of fact and fiction elements by section of the book.
  • In pairs or small groups, have students add fictional elements from the book to the network as nodes.
  • As a full class, discuss connections that exist between the nodes pre-existing within the network and that have been added by the research team. Demonstrate adding edges to connect the nodes.
    • Note: edges can and should connect fact and fiction elements.
  • Demonstrate how attributes and filtering can be used to see what is fact and fiction.
  • In pairs or small groups, have students use edges to connect nodes that are related to each other (whether or not they are fact or fiction).
  • As a whole class discussion, allow for each group to explain the outcomes of their fact vs fiction exploration. Consider discussing:
    • Aggregation: Were there any connections or patterns in the network that surprised you?
    • In what ways did exploring the fact/fiction network deepen your understanding of the novel so far? What about how history, data, and language arts are connected?
    • Context: Think about a news story you’ve seen recently. How can you tell if the information is true, or if it might be exaggerated?

After

  • Exit Ticket: What are three examples of how The Book Thief adds fictional elements to historical events, people, and places?