Write a questionnaire for students to fill out with their families. Ask about where the students' relatives came from, when they immigrated to the United States, why they left their home countries, what they did when they arrived here and what cultural elements they have retained from their heritage. Tell your students to write a non-fiction family history retelling their relatives' journeys and stories. Have them begin with the earliest information they have and write in chronological order, finishing with their immediate family's customs in the present day.
Give your students a variety of short, non-fictional stories and essays about concrete topics, such as how a dog takes care of newborn puppies or how people traveled on the Underground Railroad. Tell them to pick the story they found the most interesting and to use encyclopedias, the Internet and books in a library to gather more factual information on the same topic. Students can then write fictional or non-fictional stories of their own using the factual information. For example, a student who researches the Underground Railroad might write a story about a fictional slave family escaping to freedom.
As children learn more about history and science, they can use their knowledge to differentiate between fact and fiction. Construct a handout with a list of statements, some of which are true and some of which are not. Draw from the material your students are learning in their other subjects. For example, the handout might include sentences like "George Washington was the first president of the United States," "George Washington rowed a boat up the river" and "George Washington took a plane to Indiana." Ask students to label each sentence "Definitely Fiction," "Probably Fiction," "Possibly Non-Fiction" or "Non-Fiction."
Practice recognizing non-fictional elements in historical fiction texts with your class. Choose books and short stories set in the time periods and locations you are studying, and ask them to write down every example of historical fact they spot in the reading. Have them share their findings each day and see whether other students caught things they missed. In longer stories, stop after every few chapters and ask students to use their knowledge of history to guess what is coming in the story. Have them write paragraphs predicting how historical events will affect the book.