FACT VS. OPINION LESSON

Objective: SWBAT define fact and opinion, and provide at least three examples of each.

Materials: Printout of notes for students to copy, printout of artwork (Andy Warhol), printout of fact versus opinion activity

Adaptations/Modifications: Check for understanding frequently with all students due to ELL status. Kari (IEP) to pre-teach material, reinforce vocabulary, and extend time for homework up to two days. Erika (IEP) extended time, regular breaks, quiet setting for testing, and shortened assignments. Brianna has the option to test in an alternative environment.

Literacy: Students will be actively engaged in creating ties between vocabulary related to persuasion and real life examples, such as artwork, and analyzing their own life. Students will also quick write in their journal their understanding of the days objectives.

Set: Students will collect their book bin from the back table and pull out class notebooks. As a class we will review previous information about persuasion. “What do you remember from what we spoke about last class?” “Did anything specific stand out to you?” “Can anyone explain to me what persuasion means?” I will be looking for information such as lawyers using persuasion, or a definition of persuasion or argumentation, or examples from the video we watched the day before.  (5 min) This did not take five minutes, but instead only about 2-3. Students were initally hesitant to share, but once they began the answers came very quickly. Many students referred to their notes to help answer the questions.

Input:

I will place overhead of notes for students to copy on the smartboard projector.

Fact: something that actually exists; reality; truth

Opinion: a personal view, attitude, belief, or judgment.

Expert Opinion: a person who is a specialist in a subject, who presents his/her opinion about the subject based on their knowledge

Students will copy definitions into their notebook. I will provide examples of each by writing them on the whiteboard and have students help me label them as fact or opinion: roses smell delicious; my mom bakes the best cookies; my last name is Whitley; I live in Independence; I love to dance (5 min).

Next, I will show a piece of artwork (Andy Warhol) on the overhead projector, and ask the students to make factual statements about the piece. What are some facts about this piece of artwork (5 min)?

Then ask students to discuss their opinions about the artwork with a partner. How does this artwork make you feel? What is your opinion about it (5 min)?

 Discuss as a group. How is a fact about this artwork different than an opinion? What are some opinions that you have about it? Is your opinion different than your partners (5 min)?

“Great! Ladies and gentlemen I would like to move on to our final activity to practice what we have learned about fact and opinion. Please pull out a pencil and paper for this activity. Can I have everyone’s attention please? Here is how the activity works…”

Application:

Fact versus Opinion activity (20 min).

Students will write down three facts and three opinions about a topic of their choosing. My example is dance:
-Ballet dancers wear ballet shoes.                            -Dancing is more important than playing soccer
-Tap dancers make rhythms with their feet.        -Jazz dancing is more fun than ballroom dancing.
-Everyone should dance everyday!                         -Dance is an ancient art form.

The student will exchange their paper with a partner, and the partner must label which item is which. Students will volunteer to share their examples with the class. This activity did not take the twenty minutes I had planned, but instead only perhaps 15. I also needed to backtrack and make sure students understood the directions, individually conferring with certain students to help them get started. Once everyone understood, the actual writing and sharing with a partner went quickly.

Independent Practice/Evaluation: Students will quick write in their journal the difference between a fact and an opinion. “Please spend the next few minutes writing about the following prompt: What is the difference between a fact and an opinion? Provide a unique example of each.” (3 min). It was interesting to note that most students only wrote a brief sentence at first, and had to be persuaded to write more. Also, since I had additional time, I had students write for the full 8 minutes left over. I told students once they finished answering this question, they were expected to write about any topic of their choice for the remaining time. I gave specific examples such as: tell me what you do after school, describe your favorite sport to me and why you like it; tell me what you hope to be when you grow up. Once given these instructions, most studnets remained on task and writing for the entire time.

Closure: Students will place their notebooks into their book bins and place book bins on the back counter, and I will assign homework for next class period (they must copy it into their homework log). “Thanks for your hard work today everyone! For tomorrow I would like you to bring to class one example of a fact and one example of an opinion that you find either from a television show you watch, the newspaper, a book you are reading or something else you choose. Feel free to be creative.

I also would like you to look at what topic you chose for your argument and write some bullet points about your argument you think might be important to address.” I will demonstrate what I want for the students on the whiteboard. (2 min) I also made sure to check that the students wrote their homework down into their agendas so that the liklihood of homework being done the following day was higher.

Reflection: Certain activities went faster than I expected, and I was left with about 5 minutes at the end of the class period. I decided to have students extended their quick write to 8 minutes, and provided directions letting them know I just expect them to write, about anything, for the full amount of time. I gave examples such as tell me about your friends, your home, your favorite sport or movie. I let them know they could really write about anything. This seemed to be really difficult for the students to do, as they are not used to just writing for an extended period of time. I really liked this activity, however, and feel that I might try and budget more time for students to simply write so that they have the experience of just getting ideas out and onto the paper. Other than that, the students really seemed to understand the fact/opinion difference. Most students willingly interacted, while others required more prodding. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would perhaps add in one more activity for the fact/opinion, perhaps provide more examples, or give them another chance to demonstrate their understanding.