TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT OF SHORT STORIES Information-Based Approach 1. Elicit information from students about the text. 2. Explain the content of the text to the class. 3. Ask questions to check students’ knowledge based on what they have read. 4. Provide students with background information. Personal-Response Approach 5. Encourage students to relate the themes to personal experiences 6. Elicit students' response to a text 7. Encourage students to express feelings towards the issues of the text Language-Based Approach 8. Guide students to express their opinions towards a text 9. Set language activities in literature lesson 10. Encourage students to actively participate in the process of understanding the meaning of text 11. Students work with their classmates in the process of understanding the text 12. Generate language practice using the text Paraphrastic Approach 13. Re-tell the text to students to help them understand 14. Use simple terms to explain what the story is about to students 15. Discuss what the author says in the text 16. Get students to tell the storyline of the text Moral-Philosophical Approach 17. Incorporate moral values in lessons 18. Ask students the values they learn from the text 19. Get students to search moral values from a text 20. Raise students' awareness of values derived from the text Stylistics Approach 21. Guide students to interpret a text by looking at the language used by the author 22. Get students to mark any linguistic features from the text that are significant to their reading 23. My literature lesson looks at the language of the text, thus, encourages language awareness 24. Encourage students to discuss beyond the surface meaning of the text SHORT STORIES It’s a work of fiction so it involves imagination. A short story tells of one event in a very concentrated way. It’s about people who don’t really exist It describes something at a moment of crisis It has a plot and characters who are somehow connected with each other. Can be read in one sitting (E.A Poe) Is 1, 000-20, 000 words long Has a limited set of characters, a single setting and a simple plot Involves chronology, or sequence of events, and causation – the fact that events are somehow connected with each other, and that one event may result from another. THE STRUCTURE OF A STORY Beginnint/Exposition Rising Action Climax Falling Action End/Resolution Students’ problems with short stories Appreciating the style Inadequate reading strategies Tendency to focus on every word rather than general meaning Making interpretations Confidence to make own interpretations Coping with ambiguity comprehension Following the plot Understanding the characters Understanding the vocabulary Understanding the role of the narrator Motivation Lack of confidence Content of stories uninteresting Short stories are not relevant to passing exams in English Respond to texts Give opinions Justify opinions Knowledge of text features Applying knowledge to their writing Responding to characters Responding to plot Responding to themes (writing, oral, performance) Reading skills Making inferences Getting the main idea Predicting events What Is Nonfiction? Nonfiction is a broad genre of writing that encompasses all books that aren’t rooted in a fictional narrative. Nonfiction writing can be based in history and biography, it can be instructional, it can offer commentary and humor, and it can ponder philosophical questions. If a book is not rooted in a made-up story, then it is nonfiction. What Is the Difference Between Fiction and Nonfiction? Literary works of fiction are works that aren’t based on true facts. Typically fiction appears as narrative—think of great novels by the likes of Toni Morrison, Edith Wharton, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Gabriel García Márquez, Edgar Allen Poe, and more. In addition to novels, fiction can appear as short stories, poetry, and in theatrical scripts for film, television, and live performance. In a nutshell, nonfiction covers everything else. The contents of nonfiction are rooted in true events, although many nonfiction books offer strongly opinionated commentary on those true events—think of authors like George Will, Paul Krugman, Frank Rich, and more. 9 Essential Genres of Nonfiction Books Here are some of the most prominent types of nonfiction genres. 1. History. Historical nonfiction consists of true accounts of historical eras and events. Some histories dwell purely in objective facts, and other histories are refracted through the lens of the author’s personal beliefs. In either case, history books must present true stories in order to qualify as nonfiction. Famous writers of history include David Halberstam and Doris Kearns Goodwin. 2. Biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. This subset of nonfiction focuses on the life story of a particular subject. Biographies are written in the third person about someone other than the author. Autobiographies and memoirs are written by the subject themselves. While autobiographies and memoirs are, by necessity, written by someone who is currently alive at the time of the writing, biographies may profile subjects both living and dead. 3. Travel guides and travelogues. Travelogues are a close cousin of memoirs, and they recount an author’s specific experience traveling somewhere. Travel guides tend to be more instructive, offering suggestions and practical information for travelers bound for a particular destination. 4. Academic texts. Academic texts are designed to instruct readers on a particular topic. Most Americans first encounter academic books in the form of assigned school textbooks that form the basis for a yearlong class. Academic texts are also used by adults wishing to learn a particular trade, such as car repair or music arranging. 5. Philosophy and insight. These books are a close cousin of academic texts, and many are published by university-affiliated publishing houses. This genre runs the gamut from traditional philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, Descartes) to scientific theories (Newton, Watson & Crick) to analysis of scientific or cultural phenomena. 6. Journalism. Journalism is a broad subgenre of nonfiction and one that encompasses many media. Journalism is most regularly consumed in the form of newspapers and magazines, along with monthly journals, TV news reports, and more. Journalism reports on true events that typically, but not always, have relevance to a contemporary audience. Journalism can also take the form of books. This includes narrative nonfiction and true crime books. Some of these books, like Losing Earth by Nathaniel Rich and Memphis Rent Party by Robert Gordon straddle the line between journalism and history. The best journalism can receive acclaims like the Pulitzer Prize and the Peabody and Polk awards. 7. Self-help and instruction. Self-help books are some of the best-selling books in the world of nonfiction. Many of these books concern business success, buoying confidence, staying organized, relationship advice, dieting, and financial management. 8. Guides and how-to manuals. Related to the self-help subgenre, but more focused on specific skills is the subgenre of guides and how-to manuals. These include cookbooks, musical notations, athletic instructions, and tutorials for home hobbyists. 9. Humor and commentary. These subgenres are forms of creative nonfiction, where analysis and reflection on real-world events are distilled through the prism of an author’s point of view. Sometimes that point of view can be humorous, sometimes it’s political, and sometimes it’s purely meditative. What prevents this subcategory from being fiction is that it is rooted in objective events, both present and historical. Prose Prose is essentially identified as written text that aligns with the flow of conversation in sentence and paragraph form, as opposed to verses and stanzas in poetry. Writing of prose employs common grammatical structure and a natural flow of speech, not a specific tempo or rhythm as is seen in traditional poetry. BASIS FOR COMPARISON FICTION NONFICTION Meaning Fiction is any narrative which does not contain facts or real events, rather it is based on imagination. Nonfiction implies that form of prose which discusses true events, facts and information. Nature Subjective Objective Flexibility Yes No Directness Readers are supposed to follow and understand the abstractly presented theme. There must be a direct presentation of the information. Purpose To entertain the readers. To educate or inform the readers. References May or may not be given Must be given Perspective Narrator or Character Author Definition of Fiction Fiction can be understood as an imaginative creation, which does not exist in reality, rather it is produced by the author’s creative thought. It is a type of imaginative prose literature, which can be both spoken or written account containing imaginary characters, events and descriptions. Writing fiction means that the writer creates their own fantasy world, in their minds and introduce it to the rest of the world through the book. As the story is not real and factual, they cook it up in a way that makes it very interesting and engaging. From the reader’s point of view, fictional work refers to the creative fabrication of a fantasy world, by the author, i.e. the author imagines the entire story and its characters, the overall plot, dialogues and setting. The work of fictions is never based on a true story, and so when we go through such works, it visualizes such situation which we may never face in reality or we will come across those characters who we may never get a chance to meet in our real life and also take us to a world where we may never go otherwise. Definition of Nonfiction Nonfiction is the widest form of literature which contains informative, educational and factual writings. It is a true account or representation of a particular subject. It claims to portray authentic and truthful information, description, events, places, characters or existed things. Although, the statements and explanation provided may or may not be exact and so it is possible that it provides a true or false narrative of the subject which is talked about. Nevertheless, the author who created the account often believes or claim it to be true, when it is being created. When a nonfictional work is created, the emphasis is given to the simplicity, clarity, and straightforwardness. It encompasses essays, expository, memoirs, self-help, documentaries, textbooks, biographies and autobiographies, newspaper report and books on history, politics, science, technology, business and economics. The main purpose of reading nonfictional books is to learn more about a subject and increase the knowledge base. Key Differences Between Fiction and Nonfiction Upcoming points will explain the difference between fiction and nonfiction 1. Fiction is a literary work which contains the imaginary world, i.e. characters, situation, setting and dialogue. On the flip side, nonfiction implies that type of writing which provides true information or contains such facts or events which are real. 2. Fiction is subjective in nature, as the author has the freedom to add his opinion or perspective to the writeup. As well as the writer can elaborate any character, plot or setting as per his imagination. However, nonfiction is objective because the writer cannot add his/her opinion, as it is purely fact-based and authentic and because there is no scope for imagination, the writer needs to be straightforward. 3. When writing fiction, the author has the flexibility, to move the story in the direction which make it more exciting and interesting. Conversely, nonfictional writers do not have such flexibility because they have to provide information which is true and real. 4. In a fictional work, the writer is of the opinion that the audience will follow and understand the theme which is hidden in the content. In fact, the story can be interpreted by the readers in different ways depending on their level of understanding. As against, in a nonfictional work, there is a simple and direct presentation of the information and facts. So, there is only one interpretation. 5. The main purpose of writing fiction is to entertain the readers, whereas nonfiction writing educates the reader about a subject or to further their knowledge about something. 6. In fictional writing, references may or may not be provided by the author. On the other hand, in nonfictional writing references are provided compulsorily by the writer wherever required, so as to make the writing more credible. 7. Fiction is always from the perspective of the narrator, i.e. the writer, or the character, i.e. the main or supporting character of the story. In contrast, non-fiction is always from the perspective of the author.
