Essential Language Arts Words to Start the School Year
Fiction: made-up or imaginary happenings.
 Fiction can be written in different forms: as a poem, a short story, a novel (with
chapters), or as a drama (a play).
 Fiction can also be classified its content: realistic fiction, historical fiction, science
fiction, fantasy fiction.
o Realistic fiction: a fictional story that has a realistic plot and characters. (You can
imagine it happening in real life.)
o Science fiction: a fictional story that is based on the science of the future and
technology.
o Fantasy fiction: a fictional story that includes impossible elements such as
talking animals, magical powers.
o Historical fiction: a fictional story set in an actual historical time period (World
War II, for example, in the book Number the Stars).
Nonfiction: Fact, information, or events that have occurred in actual life.
 Nonfiction can be written in different forms: as a poem, an informational article, essay,
book, or as a drama (a play).
 For nonfiction, it is important that you know the difference between a biography (an
account of a person’s life) and an autobiography (an account of a person’s life, written
by that person).
Genre: type/form. What is your favorite genre of literature? My favorite genre is____________
Synonym: words that have same or similar meanings.
Antonym: words that have opposite meanings.