Common Core ELA7th GradeReading: Literature

RL.7.9: Compare Historical Fiction with History

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.9 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

The Official Wording

Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 7, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.7.9 Means in Plain English

Seventh graders read a historical story beside a factual account of the same time and sort what the author kept, invented and changed. A Johnstown Flood story keeps the rain, the dam and the telegraph, then has a whole neighborhood believe a warning that history says many ignored.

In 6th grade (RL.6.9) students compared how genres, like a historical novel and a fantasy, treat one theme. Seventh grade sets fiction against history itself to see how authors use or alter the past. In 8th grade (RL.8.9) students trace how modern fiction reworks myths and traditional stories.

RL.7.9 I Can Statements

I can find the facts a historical story keeps from history.
I can spot what a historical story invents or changes.
I can explain why an author might alter what really happened.

RL.7.9 Worked Example

Three lines of historical fiction and three from a history of the flood, both about the same afternoon in 1889.

Read the Story

Historical fiction: It had rained for a day and a night, and by the last afternoon in May the river ran brown and ankle-deep through Nell’s kitchen.Historical fiction: Then the telegraph boy came running with a slip of paper. Papa read it once and said, “The dam is going. Everyone up the hillside, now,” and every family on the lane followed him.Historical fiction: From the hillside they watched a dark wall of trees and roofs roll into the valley, and Nell counted every neighbor who had climbed up behind them.Historical account: On May 31, 1889, after heavy rain, the South Fork Dam gave way, and the lake behind it poured down the valley, reaching Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in about an hour.Historical account: Telegraph warnings reached the town that day, but warnings about the dam in earlier years had come to nothing, and many people did not take them seriously.Historical account: The flood swept through Johnstown in minutes, and more than 2,200 people died.

A short passage written for this page.

Question: What does the story keep from the historical account, what does it change about the warning, and why might the author have changed it?

Not Yet“Both texts are about the Johnstown Flood. The story is more exciting because it has a family in it.”It names the shared topic and a vague difference, then stops. It never says what the fiction alters about the warning or asks why, which is the whole point of the comparison.

Meets the Standard“The story keeps the facts: heavy rain, ‘the last afternoon in May,’ a dam giving way and a warning sent by telegraph. It invents Nell, Papa and the telegraph boy, and it changes how people reacted. In the account ‘many people did not take them seriously,’ but in the story ‘every family on the lane followed him.’ The change lets the author save the characters readers care about while the wall of trees and roofs still shows what happened to everyone below.”It sorts the fiction into kept, invented and changed, quotes the account to prove the change, and gives a reason for the change instead of calling it an error.

Question Stems to Use

Which details in the story match the historical account?What did the author invent, like characters, dialogue or small events?What did the author change, like how people acted or when things happened?Why might the author have made that change?What does the story let you feel that the account doesn’t?

Common Mistakes with RL.7.9

Treating the novel as a history book

“Everyone in Johnstown believed the telegraph and ran for the hills.”

Try this: Have students check every historical claim in the story against the account and mark each one kept, invented or changed.

Calling every change a mistake

“The author got it wrong because most people ignored the warning.”

Try this: Ask what the change lets the story do, like build suspense or focus on one family, before calling it an error.

Comparing only the topic

“Both are about a flood in 1889.”

Try this: Require one detail the story kept and one it altered in every comparison, each checked against a line of the account.

Where RL.7.9 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.6.9Compare how texts in different forms or genres approach similar themes and topics.

AlongsideRH.6-8.9Analyze how a primary and a secondary source on the same historical topic relate.W.7.9Write a comparison of a fictional portrayal of a period with a historical account of it.

Comes NextRL.8.9Analyze how modern fiction draws on myths, traditional stories or religious works and makes them new.

Practice RL.7.9

Quick Check

What date does the historical account give for the dam’s failure?
May 31, 1889.
Which detail in the story matches the account’s report of a warning?
The telegraph boy running with a slip of paper. Both texts say a warning about the dam came by telegraph.
What does the story change about how people reacted to the warning?
In the story every family on the lane follows Papa up the hillside, while the account says many people did not take the warnings seriously because earlier ones had come to nothing.

RL.7.9: Other Names

RL.7.9CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.9