Realistic Fiction study using the Freyer Model

Here are some shots from today's study of Realistic Fiction using the Freyer Model.

We actually started by looking back to the hierarchy that we created to help us understand the organization of fiction genres. We talked about different hierarchies that exist, and how hierarchies can be helpful to us in understanding the different levels within an organization. In our case, a hierarchy was used to help us understand the different levels of specificity within the genre of fiction.

Then we learned about the Freyer Model, which is another tool that we can use to differentiate from similar ideas. Because some of the more specific fiction genres can seem to overlap, or be really similar, we need a way to help us tell them apart. When we pull a book off of the shelf in our library, we need to be able to quickly understand what genre of book it is, based on some very important information.

The Freyer Model starts with a central idea or word that is the focus of the study. After having only used the Freyer Model a few times, I've determined my preferred order:

1. Find or determine a definition or description of the word or idea.
2. Identify some examples of the word or idea in use. This example should be the concrete representation of the word or idea.
3. Using the examples, facts and characteristics of the word or idea should be identified, in order to provide a more specific and detailed description of what makes up the word or idea.
4. Identify some non-examples of the word or idea. These non-examples don't have to be exactly as concrete as the examples, but they can an opposing fact or characteristic that clearly helps differentiate the central word or idea from other similar words or ideas.
*When I think of steps 2 through 4, I think of a recursive process. I'm a little partial to that phrase, "recursive process" when I think of the writing process, but I imagine, if the user of a Freyer Model knows a bit about the central word or idea, then they can work through things in a "disorderly" way that is recursive in nature: step 2 >>> step 4 >>> step 2 >>> step 3 >>> step 4 >>> step 3 >>>

Below is an image of the example I showed students to help understand what the finished product should look like. We studied nonfiction text last quarter, and all students needed to read some type of personal writing--biography, autobiography, memoir, journal/diary. I figured this familiarity would be reassuring to the students, but I'm not sure it was for all of them. I wish I would have shown me going through the process of filling in the Freyer Model on a biography, so they could have seen me in action--thinking and writing--instead of just showing them and talking them through the finished product.



Here are a few student examples, in the process.