Oooh, cool question, Barb. I can't imagine teaching fact/opinion with fiction--does that even make sense? Was it historical fiction and they were looking for the historical parts? When I've taught this with nonfiction, I've always used very obvious opinions to begin with (check some Seymour Simon books--his opinions are clearly stated). My next step is to read text where opinion is not clearly stated so that we must infer the author's opinion. Both of these discussions get us into the text. But I also like your idea of making kids go back (often the opinion is at the very end) and figure out the importance of the opinion to the facts presented. Judy
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Borchert" <[email protected]> To: "Mosaic" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, November 8, 2009 7:29:45 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [MOSAIC] teaching fact and opinion Recently I was observing in a fourth grade classroom during guided reading. The teacher was teaching fact and opinion. This is the second classroom where I have observed the teaching of this skill. Both teachers' instructional objective was to have students identify fact and opinion in the text. I have come to the conclusion that fact and opinion is a harder skill to teach than one might first believe. This has been on my mind for the last few days. I would like the members of this list serve to give me some feedback. The first teacher struggled with teaching fact and opinion because she was using fiction and released responsibility too soon. The second teacher did a better job because non-fiction text was used. Yet I felt that too much of the instructional time was spent in identifying opinions that weren't important to understanding the text. I'm wondering if part of the struggle with teaching fact and opinion is that the instruction isn't tied to the author's purpose (Persuade, Inform, Entertain). The author's purpose of the three non-fiction texts was to inform the reader about different facets of Chinese history. The first two texts really didn't have any opinions in it that added to the understanding of the topic. The teacher spent a lot of time trying to give those minor opinions the same weight as the facts. The third story, on the other hand, was a much better text for teaching fact and opinion because there was a issue with different opinions that was explained in the text. My new thinking for teaching fact and opinion is to tie it to author's purpose. The author's purpose will determine how the skill will be taught. If the author's purpose is to inform, the bulk of the reading will be facts unless an issue with differing viewpoints is explained. Choosing a text in which the author's purpose is to persuade may be a better choice for teaching fact and opinion. The text will have facts in it, even though they may be one-sided. The opinions should be easier to identify and will be important to the understanding of the text. Finding a letter to the editor or studying the editorial page may be a better text to use. I'm less clear about fact and opinion when the author's purpose it to entertain (fiction). I think the facts would be tied to the story map and the opinions may be what the characters say about other characters or the events. The character's opinions may also be the factor that explains a characters actions. How do you teach fact and opinion? I think that asking students to identify a fact or an opinion may be the first step, but there is much more involved. Maybe the key is to choose a text that has an opinion that is important to the text. Thank you for your thoughts! Barb _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
