Story or Facts? Fiction and Nonfiction

About This Resource

A free Grade 4 ESL reading worksheet on the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Students read a short story about a baby turtle and a fact text about sea turtles, answer questions on each, sort the features of fiction and nonfiction texts, decide whether book titles are fiction or nonfiction and explain how they know. Includes a timed lesson plan, a six-activity worksheet, an editable Word version and answer key.

Overview

Fiction texts are made up by a writer: they have characters, a setting and a plot, and things can happen that are not real, like a crab that talks. Nonfiction texts give true information: they use facts, headings, photos with captions, diagrams and a glossary. Students read two texts on the same topic, a story about Tilly the turtle and a fact text about sea turtles, and compare them. They answer questions, sort text features, decide whether book titles are fiction or nonfiction and explain the clues that helped them decide.

Resource Details

Subject: ESL
Topic: Fiction and Nonfiction
Category: Reading
File Type: PDF
File Size: 230.1 KB
Published: 12 Nov 2026
Downloads: 0

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Grade 4 ESL (ages 9–10), A2 45 minutes Reading comprehension text features comparing texts explaining

Student Task

Hold up a storybook and an information book. Ask: "How are these books different?"
Read the two turtle texts and do activities 1 and 2 together.
Students complete activities 3 to 6. Answers are in the answer key.

Classroom Use

Library sort: groups sort a pile of books from the class library into fiction and nonfiction and explain their choices.
Feature hunt: students find a heading, a caption and a glossary in an information book.
Turn it around: students write two fact sentences about an animal from a story they know.

Differentiation

Support: pre-teach reptile, hatchling and surface, and let students read the texts with a partner. Challenge: students write a short nonfiction paragraph about another animal using a heading and a caption.

Answer Key & Assessment

Activities 1 to 5 check comprehension and text features (answer key included). Activity 6 shows whether students can explain their reasoning.

Learning Objectives

Explain the difference between fiction and nonfiction.
Identify features of fiction and nonfiction texts.
Use clues to decide whether a text is fiction or nonfiction.

Teacher Tips

Some fiction includes real facts, and some stories are set in real places, so focus on the main purpose of the text: to entertain with a story or to give true information. Hatchlings really do move toward the brightest light, which is why bright lights near beaches can confuse them.

What's Included

7-page printable PDF lesson pack: teacher lesson plan with timings, materials and differentiation
Key vocabulary list (6 words with meanings and examples)
Student worksheet (6 activities)
Editable Word version of the worksheet
Complete answer key (also as a separate PDF)