Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the varied structural patterns and features of literary nonfiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to identify the literary language and devices used in memoirs and personal narratives and compare their characteristics with those of an autobiography.
6th Grade Reading - Literary Nonfiction Lesson
Literary Nonfiction
Informational texts that tell a story are examples of literary nonfiction. These are based on true facts and tell about a real person and the real events in the person’s life.
Sometimes, literary nonfiction includes imagined conversation or narrative to create a literary effect. This is characteristic of literary nonfiction.
Biography
A biography is the story of a person’s life told by someone else. It is written in the third person point of view.
Examples: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, John Adams by David McCullough
Autobiography
An autobiography is the story of a person’s life told in his or her own words. It is written in the first person point of view.
Examples: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Memoir
A memoir is the story of one person’s life and experiences. It is a form of autobiography. Usually, a memoir focuses on a short period of the person’s life. It shows the author’s feelings about the life events. Figurative language is often used in memoirs.
Examples: Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff, Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton
6th Grade Reading - Literary Nonfiction Lesson