Fiction or Non-fiction?

I spend a lot of time teaching students the difference between fiction and non-fiction.  In the beginning, it's pretty clear which is which: the book with the rabbit all dressed up and dancing to a fiddle-playing frog is definitely FICTION.  The book with the photographs and information about how to take care of pets is definitely NON-FICTION.

But as students get older, the line sometimes gets a bit blurred; is this book with the cartoon drawing of George Washington fiction or non-fiction?  It doesn't have any "real" photographs but it does have facts.  This book is a picture book about the Titanic and has facts, but it is written as if the person was the captain of the ship, and THAT can't be real!

This confusion can carry over as students move on to the internet to access information.  Is just any website reliable?  How can you tell?  

Check out this website:  California Crop Faces Challenges

Fiction or Non-Fiction?  It has charts, it looks official...but your common sense should tell you something isn't right. 

How about this one?  Save this Endangered Animal

We all want to help endangered animals, but what is fact and what is fiction here?

As students get older and begin viewing a plethora of information about politics, finances, academic subjects and life skills, it is more important than ever to teach them how to access, process, synthesize, analyze and apply this information.  They need to be able to evaluate sources, locate reliable resources, consider the relevance of the information.  They should know how current the resource is and how accurate the information is that it contains.

Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can publish on the Web. That means it's up to them to determine which sites are reliable by using the 5Ws (who? what? when? where? and why?) as evaluation criteria.  Additional criteria includes:

• Who is the author/publisher? Is that source clearly identified on the site?
  
  
• Can the author by contacted through an e-mail, phone number, or a mailing address?
• What are the author's credentials? Is he or she an expert in the subject?
  
  
• Is the site created or sponsored by a reputable organization? If so, can it be confirmed that the organization is a credible, authoritative source of information?

• What information and resources does the site provide?

• What is the site's purpose: to persuade, inform, or entertain? Does the site achieve its purpose?
  
  
• Is the information on the site objective or biased? The site should present several authoritative viewpoints on the subject and not just one person's opinion.
  
  
• Does the site provide thorough coverage of the topic? Does it reference or link to other in-depth resources?
  
  
• Is the information on the site well-written? Are there misspellings or grammatical errors?
  
  
• Does the site provide a "Works Cited" page or a bibliography? Can it be verified that the resources the author consulted are reliable, thorough, and objective?

By introducing our students to these evaluation skills now, we can help them develop the ability to discern the difference between FICTION and NON-FICTION as they get older.  The consequences of their decisions might affect us all.