Lesson Plan : Fact or Opinion?

Teacher Name:
 Sarah Harper
Grade:
 Grade 4
Subject:
 Language Arts

Topic:
 Fact versus Opinion
Content:
 � Cooperative Learning Structure � Roundtable (Ch.10, Kagan) Often in small group work, one person leads the group and ends up doing most of the work, or providing most of the answers. With this cooperative learning strategy, each person in the group is given an equal chance to contribute. Each student is also given time to think of an answer while the others are recording theirs. � Big Questions � What is a Fact? What is an Opinion? What strategies can you use to identify an opinion when you read? � Key Concept � Facts are statements that can not be disputed, while opinions are statements that state someone�s personal view. Readers must be able to distinguish between the two when reading to determine the validity of the text being read. � Vocabulary � Fact, Opinion
Goals:
 TEKS 4th Grade (2) Listening/speaking
Objectives:
 � Content � Students will be able to generate and identify words associated with opinion statements as well as generating fact and opinion statements of their own. � Language � Students will discuss and brainstorm in small groups synonyms and antonyms for the five opinion words: like, good, pretty, important and think. Through this discussion students will be able to develop a larger list of vocabulary than if they were to work solitarily. Students will also be able to hear the difference between the opinion and fact statements of their peers.
Materials:
 � Opinion words chart � Fact/Opinion statements and cards � Practice 19 worksheet � Thesauruses � Letter to the Editor, Editorial � Paper � Pencils or Pens
Introduction:
 What do you know if you�re reading a fact or opinion? o Students will generate ideas about what a fact and what an opinion is while the teacher records their ideas on a T-chart. o The teacher will ask the students how they think they can tell the difference between the two types of statements while reading, recording answers on the T-chart as well.
Development:
 o Teacher will introduce the idea that opinions can be found by looking for key words. Most words associated with opinion fall under the categories: Like, good, pretty, important and think. o Students will work together in groups using the Roundtable cooperative learning structure to complete the opinion word chart. Students will pass the chart around generating one word each for any of the five columns they wish. Each group will continue doing this until the group cannot think of any other synonyms or antonyms for the opinion words chart. Students can use the Thesaurus if they wish. o The teacher will compile the class� words on the board and students will copy down words their group did not come up with.
Practice:
 o Each group will be given a bag of statements. The group must read through each one individually and determine if it is a fact or opinion making two columns on their desks. o When each group has finished the teacher will go through the statements and have the groups raise a fact or opinion card.
Accommodations:
 o During independent practice of reading and responding to the editorial, struggling readers will be placed in a group to work with the teacher. While in the group the teacher will read Practice 19 to the students, having them underline opinion words as they are read. After each statement has been read, the small group will go over their answers and explain how they came to the conclusions they did. o Opinion words will be placed on their own word wall, which will be hung in the classroom for language learners to refer to as they are reading. Comprehensible Input o The entire class will fill in the opinion word chart to use as they read statements and complete practice work to help them recall the key words associated with opinion statements. (graphic organizer) o As examples are said, or explanations made throughout the lesson they will be written on the board for the students to look back to. o Each part of the lesson will not only be verbally explained, but also physically shown.
Checking For Understanding:
 o Students will be asked to generate two facts and two opinions about the book they are reading each week in their reading journals.
Closure:
 o The teacher will review the strategies for determining if a statement is fact or opinion, such as looking for key words, and remembering no such thing as fact words. o Students will then volunteer a sentence from their responses to the editorial for the class to determine if it is a fact or opinion statement.
Evaluation:
 � Practice 19 worksheet has students use there knowledge of words associated with opinions to identify opinions versus facts and create three facts and opinions of their own. � On the letter to the editor page students identify facts and opinions and create a writing piece of their own where they identify the opinion statements they made.
Teacher Reflections:
 I spread this lesson over two days, and my students really enjoyed the chance it gave them to express opinions of their own using the new vocabulary they acquired. I was impressed how many synonyms and antonyms the students were able to generate at the beginning of the lesson once they began to work in groups using the roundtable method. It was hard for some students to keep their word until it was their time in the sequence of the roundtable, but it also became a game to think of a word that no on else would think of. Generating opinion words in this way engaged the whole group and helped reinforce the new vocabulary both through visual and auditory means. The editorial and response part of the lesson was especially fun for the students because it allowed them to express their views and use their imaginations within the familiar format of a friendly letter. I would definitely repeat the lesson again, however I would try to bring in even more examples of real text that use opinion for the students to examine before asking them to create their own editorial piece.

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