Students will build on their prior understanding of fiction narration in this lesson. Students will compare narrative fiction to narrative nonfiction genres such as autobiographies and biographies. At the end of this lesson, students are going to:
- Exemplify reading techniques to understand the author's intent, point of view, and sequencing in a nonfiction narrative.
- Recognize and elucidate nonfiction narrative techniques.

- How can readers decide which information from what they hear, read, and see to believe? 
- How do literary and informational texts become meaningful to strategic readers? 
- How does interacting with texts elicit thought and response?

- Autobiography: The story of a person’s life written by himself or herself. 
- Biography: The story of a person’s life written by someone other than the subject of the work. 
- Point of View: How an author reveals characters, events, and ideas in telling a story; the vantage point from which the story is told. 
- Third Person: A perspective in literature, the third-person point of view presents the events of the story from outside of any single character’s perception.

- James Herriot. (2002). All Things Bright and Beautiful. Glencoe McGraw-Hill. 
- James Herriot's biography is available at www.infoplease.com/biography/james-herriot.html 
- James Wight. (2001). The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father. Ballantine Books, 2001. 
- Teachers may substitute other books to provide a range of reading and level of text complexity.

- Focus on the goal of the lesson, which is to examine how the author's purpose is reflected in the narration of nonfiction texts. Answers to the questions and the comparison of the T-chart will show you where the students are struggling with understanding and help you support them. Recommend to students to consult the text again for evidence if their conclusions are not well-supported.
- Reteach the concepts as needed as the students read and discuss the chosen works. Encourage students to locate textual evidence to support their conclusions and remind them to concentrate on the narrative's purpose to identify how nonfiction structures differ.

Explicit instruction, active engagement, and scaffolding 
W: Examine the point of view, narrative devices used in nonfiction, and the distinctions between nonfiction and fiction. 
H: Get students interested by assigning them to write and present their narratives in pairs. 
E: Use guided questions to have students analyze autobiographical and biographical narrative techniques on their own. Afterward, have them present their findings to the class. 
R: Give students time to work in groups and individually, giving them the chance to revisit the material and offering assistance when needed. 
E: Ask students to present their group analyses of the texts, and then have them discuss in pairs the conclusions they have drawn about each text's character. 
T: Adapt the lesson to account for multiple intelligences by utilizing resources with varying reading levels and activities designed to gauge each student's comprehension. 
O: After an individual personal narrative, the class discusses nonfiction narratives, individual analysis through comparison, and pairs up for discussion. The lesson ends with the submission of written analyses for comprehension assessment. 

Main question: What is the function of narration in nonfiction text?

Say: "People have a natural desire to share stories, especially their own. Oral traditions are the source of our earliest known history. Storytelling, or the technique an author employs to narrate events, is most frequently linked with fiction, but nonfiction works like autobiographies and biographies also heavily rely on narration. You will now have the chance to create a narrative out of one of your personal experiences. Tell a neighbor about one of the following situations." On the board or interactive whiteboard, write the following scenarios:

Describe a recent occurrence.
Give the details of a memorable sporting event or musical performance that you were a part of or watched.
Tell about a time when you were outside that you will never forget.
Talk about a fun time you had playing a game online.
"You've just told an autobiographical narrative, a nonfiction story about your own life," you can say after students have had a chance to share. "Nonfiction narratives are based on actual events, whereas fictional narratives are based on the author's imagination, even though you may have used some fiction-specific techniques like suspense, description, and dialogue. We will be examining nonfiction narrative techniques in this unit."

Provide students with a copy of All Things Bright and Beautiful, or a comparable nonfiction narrative text, and assign them to read the passage about the bull and parrot. Put the ensuing queries up on the board:

Whose perspective is the story told from?
In an autobiographical story, how does the author's point of view impact their goals?
Why is the narration's chronological order important?
How does the writer captivate readers with their nonfiction narration?

When students have finished reading the excerpt, have them write the answers to the questions on a piece of notebook paper. Next, discuss each other's responses as a group. The first three questions provide an opportunity to review the ideas of chronological order and point of view. Teach your students that James Herriot's emotions, values, and beliefs are revealed to readers through his use of the first-person point of view as he responds to events. Furthermore, it increases the reader's sense of immersion in the action. Remind them that although there are other ways to present events, autobiographies frequently use chronological order because it makes events easier for readers to understand.

The last question may have a variety of answers. (Responses could be as simple as adding humor, bringing realism to the scenes, or emphasizing key actions.) Request that students cite specific instances from the excerpt to back up their answers. For instance, what do the characters say or do to make the situation humorous? What is the main event or action in the excerpt? Why do the characters and events seem plausible? Remind students to always return to the text for evidence to back up their conclusions. Allow students to consult the text again for clarification, and help those who might need help understanding the assignment.

"Now, let's read a biography of James Herriot," you say. "Consider the similarities and differences between the autobiography and the biography as you read. To keep track of your comparisons, use a T-chart." Put "Similarities" on one side and "Differences" on the other of the T-chart to represent it on the board or interactive whiteboard. Give your pupils a copy of Herriot's son's memoir, The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father, or a biographical outline from the internet. (You can use alternative texts to offer a variety of reading levels and text complexity.)

As a group, talk about the students' T-chart replies. Differences could be in objectivity (the autobiography is first-person, while the biography is third-person), point of view (the autobiography is first-person, but Herriot's son is by no means an objective source), and other factors. True stories, real people, and the application of chronological order are a few examples of similarities. Ask, "What impact does the author's point of view have on the author's goal?" During the discussion, help the students understand that the third-person point of view enables the author to provide readers with information about the person's qualities and flaws, as well as things the subject may not have noticed when writing an autobiography and the impact of other people and events. Assist them in realizing that the first-person perspective has limitations about accessing the narrator's thoughts and emotions.   

Instruct students to write a term or two on the T-chart that best describes James Herriot in his autobiography and the biography's description of him. Ask students to present evidence for their descriptions and discuss their answers with a partner. While there may be some similarities in the responses, students will benefit from knowing that the author's intent and point of view influence the kinds of information presented in the text as well as the reader's experience with it. Say, "What we understand to be true in nonfiction texts depends largely on how an author narrates events." Gather the answers from the students and use the T-charts to track their comprehension.

Extension:

Students can complete the following exercise if they require more practice comprehending nonfiction narratives:
Give brief extracts from other autobiographies or individual biographies to small groups. Utilizing questions akin to those from the lesson, ask students to compare and contrast the stories in the texts. 
Students who are prepared to go above and beyond the requirements can engage in any of the following:
Have students look for other text structures, like description or problem/solution, in autobiographical or biographical texts using samples given by the teacher, and consider how these structures affect narrative.
Ask students to compose an autobiographical story that recounts a poignant or humorous event from their own lives.
Ask students to write a synopsis of a friend or family member.