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.

What do you mean, there weren't awesome laser guns during the time of Lincoln? Joking aside, historical fiction can be a great way to teach students about an earlier time period without having them read dry textbooks. Authors also frequently go back in time and write historical novels in order to critique what's happening in their own times (think the Salem witch trials of The Crucible with the McCarthyism of the '50s); it would be a great time to bring that up as you're teaching this standard to students.