Teaching article
Fiction and information texts: look beyond the cover
Ask what the text is trying to do and how a particular claim should be checked.
Bright pictures, maps and speech bubbles can appear in several kinds of text. Compare what the work is trying to communicate, using its content and purpose rather than deciding from presentation alone.
Identify each text's purpose. Select one factual claim for checking. Explain why invention belongs differently in each.
What is this text asking the reader to do?
An imagined moon garden can be a story setting; a claim about actual lunar conditions needs a reliable scientific source.
Use the work's purpose and content rather than its cover style. Information texts can include illustrations and stories can contain factual details.
What makes the proposed claim checkable? Use two short adult-read extracts.
A realistic-looking illustration is not proof.
Resources
- Reflection Journal Template — Use the editable prompt space to record the text, question and response; it is a blank recording aid rather than a reading programme.
Further reading
Read next
- Headings are promises about what comes next
- Revise a story by choosing what needs to change
- What does the character want? Read the action in context
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