<p>Students will examine how fact and opinion are used in nonfiction writings, like biographies, in this lesson. After the lesson, students are able to:<br>- Enumerate the qualities that make a biography.<br>- Make a distinction between ideas and facts.<br>- Find and review claims of fact and opinion in biographies.<br>- Deduce the viewpoint of the writer from a biography.<br>- Give arguments and proof from the text to back up the author's claims.</p>

<p>- How does interaction with text provoke thinking and response?<br>- How can literary and informational writings make sense to strategically minded readers?<br>- What is the true purpose of this text?<br>- How can readers decide which information from what they hear, read, and see to believe?</p>

<p>- Biography: The story of a person’s life written by someone other than the subject of the work.&nbsp;<br>- Nonfiction: Writing that is not fictional; designed primarily to explain, argue, instruct, or describe rather than entertain. For the most part, its emphasis is factual.&nbsp;<br>- Fact: Statement that is provable, observable, and measurable.&nbsp;<br>- Opinion: A person’s beliefs or judgments not founded on proof or certainty.</p>

<p>- Don Brown. <i>Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein.</i> Sandpiper, 2008. This text was selected because it has easily identifiable examples of fact and opinion. Alternative texts should be easy to read, allowing students to focus on the skill of identifying facts and opinions. Use a biography from a basal reading series or one of the following examples:<br>- Michael Dooling. (2005). <i>Young Thomas Edison</i>. Holiday House.<br>- Jacqueline Briggs Martin. (2009). <i>Snowflake Bentley</i>. Sandpiper.<br>- Jonah Winter. (2000). <i>Once Upon a Time in Chicago: The Story of Benny Goodman. </i>Hyperion Books.<br>- Pam Munzo Ryan. (2002). <i>When Marian Sang. </i>Scholastic Press.<br>- David A. Adler. (1993). <i>A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman.</i> Holiday House.<br>- Ryan Jacobson. (2006). <i>Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady of the World. </i>Capstone Press.<br>- Teachers may substitute other books with easily identifiable examples of fact and opinion to provide a range of reading and level of text complexity.<br>- Biographical sketches of authors. Examples include the following:<br><a href="http://www.judyblume.com/about.php">http://www.judyblume.com/about.php</a><br><a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/about.html">http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/about.html</a><br><a href="http://www.tomie.com/about_tomie/bio.html">http://www.tomie.com/about_tomie/bio.html</a><br>- Fact and Opinion graphic organizer (L-5-3-1_Fact and Opinion Graphic Organizer)<br>- Fact and Opinion statements for sentence strips (L-5-3-1_Fact and Opinion Sentence Strips)<br>- Biography Reading Guide (L-5-3-1_Biography Reading Guide)<br>- chart paper</p>

<p>- This lesson's objective is to assist students in examining, recognizing, and providing evidence for the factual and subjective claims made in biographies. Students should read a biography of their choice and respond to the following questions to gauge their grasp of these ideas:<br>+ When was this person born? Is this a statement of opinion or fact? What textual evidence enables you to distinguish between an opinion and a fact?<br>+ Look for a sentence that expresses a person's viewpoint. What's the consensus? Whose view is that?<br>+ Jot down one thing you discovered after reading this bio. How are you certain it's true?<br>+ Write a reflection about this person based on the knowledge you have gained.<br>+ Explain the author's perspective on this person in your own words.</p>

<p>Explicit instruction, modeling, scaffolding, and active engagement<br>W: Go over the qualities of a biography and use the study of a picture book biography to increase students' comprehension of fact and opinion.&nbsp;<br>H: Assign students to brainstorm qualities of a biography in groups.&nbsp;<br>E: Assist students in differentiating between statements of truth and opinion, and mentor them in offering evidence to back up their choices. Make a distinction between factual and subjective assertions as a class, and then assign students to examine these distinctions in biographies in small groups.&nbsp;<br>R: Give students the chance to debate the distinctions between claims that are factual and those that are opinionated both as a class and in small groups. Also, urge them to analyze the factors that determine whether a statement is factual or opinionative.&nbsp;<br>E: Allow students to show what they have learned by observing them to gauge their comprehension of differentiating between factual and subjective assertions in biographies.&nbsp;<br>T: Using a small-group exercise and large-group discussion, provide students the chance to demonstrate their ability to identify between facts and views. After that, go over their fact and opinion graphic organizers to see which students require further assistance.&nbsp;<br>O: This lesson's learning activities offer both small-group exploration and engagement as well as large-group instruction and discussion.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Main Question: How does our understanding of a biography change when we can differentiate between facts and opinions?</strong><br><br>Ask, <strong>"What is a biography?"</strong><br><br>As students express their views, note their answers on the interactive whiteboard or board and offer advice or comments. <i>(On a sheet of chart paper, you might want to make an anchor chart. Put "Biography" as the chart's title and enumerate the qualities of a biography. After that, this chart can be put up in the classroom so that students have access to it whenever they need it.)</i> Some of the attributes are as follows:<br><br>describes the life of a real person (the subject).<br>authored by a person who is not the subject.<br>demonstrates the author's knowledge of the subject.<br>explains the surroundings of the subject.<br>demonstrates the impact of the topic on others (major contribution).<br>outlines the issues and challenges the subject overcomes.<br>contains significant occurrences from the life of the topic.<br>explains or suggests the author's feelings toward the topic.<br><br><strong>Part 1</strong><br><br>Say, <strong>"Biographies contain both facts and opinions."</strong><br><br>Review the definitions of opinion and fact with your students. Help students comprehend the meanings of the following terms:<br><br>Real facts are verifiable, measurable, and observable. They are found in encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, and textbooks.<br>Opinions can be disputed. These are a person's beliefs or opinions that are not supported by data or certainty.<br><br>Give the L-5-3-1_Fact and Opinion Sentence Strips to each student separately. After each student reads aloud a sentence strip, the class should decide if the statement is true or false. Help students explore signal words—words from sentences that suggest the presence of an opinion—as they work through this process. Assist students in comprehending the process of proving true claims. Keep in mind that a "factual" assertion could be untrue. Because of this, the statement is untrue, but it's not necessarily an opinion. The phrase strips ought to spark insightful conversations on facts and viewpoints. To help students remember this knowledge for the&nbsp;next lesson, you can make an anchor chart with the information below and hang it in the classroom.<br><br>Words that indicate opinions: best/worst, might, believe, think, always, never, and good/bad<br>Using encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, almanacs, certain online resources, and statistics to demonstrate a point<br><br>Assign students to read biographical sketches of authors, which can be located on the back of books or websites like the ones mentioned in the materials. Ask students to talk with a partner about the biographical sketch for five to ten minutes. Construct guidelines by posing the following queries: <strong>"Who penned the drawing? What was the intention? Which details were revealed? What viewpoints were expressed?"</strong> Next, write the following questions on the board or interactive whiteboard, and have the students discuss the answers:<br><br>Who was the subject of the biographical sketch?<br>Which factual details were provided? How are these facts known to you? In what way would you establish these as true?<br>Does the biographical sketch contain any opinions? How are you aware that they are only opinions? Provide evidence from the passage to support these views.<br><br><strong>Part 2</strong><br><br>Copy the L-5-3-1_Biography Reading Guide or other biography reading guide and spread it. Read the biography Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein by Don Brown aloud to your pupils, asking them to pay attention and take notes.<br><br>Once you've finished reading the biography, ask the students to use their notes to answer the reading guide questions.<br><br>Who was the subject of the bio? <i>(Albert Einstein</i>)<br>Which two pieces of accurate facts concerning the person in question were presented? <i>(Possible answers: The theories of relativity were discovered by Albert Einstein. He was a violinist.) How are these facts known to you? (They can be validated by consulting trustworthy sources.)</i><br>What views did that person express about himself? What were other people's thoughts about him? <i>(Possible answers: Albert Einstein treated his sister cruelly <strong>at times</strong>. Teachers <strong>felt </strong>that Albert Einstein lacked intelligence.)</i> Highlight the phrases that indicate they are opinions.<br>How do you feel about that&nbsp;person? <i>(Possible answers: Einstein was intelligent. His hair was insane. He was strange, eccentric, and unsociable.)</i><br>What did the author think of this person? <i>(Assist students in realizing that the text's title, "Odd Boy Out," is one way the author conveyed an Albert Einstein viewpoint.) </i>To substantiate the author's viewpoint, consult the original text again.<br><br>Allow students to share their answers and have a discussion about their ideas. Encourage children to think more deeply by asking them to elaborate on how they came to know the information in their assertions to be true or their opinions.<br><br>Ask students to explain how the information in their assertions may be verified if they think it is true (e.g., by looking in a dictionary, an almanac, an encyclopedia, the Internet, a map, a textbook, or a medical magazine).<br>Encourage them to talk about any signal words—such as good/bad, might, believe, should, always/never, and guess—that may have helped them come to this conclusion if they feel that their statements are opinions.<br><br><strong>Part 3</strong><br><br>Use the Odd Boy Out conversation to demonstrate to students how to complete the Fact and Opinion graphic organizer (L-5-3-1_Fact and Opinion Graphic Organizer).<br><br>Assign pupils to no more than four-person small groups. Give a picture book biography to each group to read. Give each member of the group a Fact and Opinion graphic organizer (L-5-3-1_Fact and Opinion Graphic Organizer) and instruct them to fill it out after reading the biography that was provided to them.<br><br>Give pupils about 20 minutes to finish this assignment. While the groups are working, observe the pupils to see how well they understand opinions and facts. Help any student who is struggling with this task and may require more assistance.<br><br>Ask students to present their graphic organizers to the class if there is enough&nbsp;time. As students speak, dispel any misunderstandings they might have and explain why a statement might or might not be correctly identified.<br><br>Don't forget to go over the focal question with the class at the end of the lecture. Ask, <strong>"How does the ability to discern between facts and opinions impact our reading of biographies?</strong>"&nbsp;Teach pupils that biographies are composed of a combination of facts and opinions. Describe the significance of recognizing and comprehending the author's prejudice. The reader will get a deeper comprehension of the content if they can identify the author's bias and use that information to compare the author's bias to their own.<br><br><strong>Extension:</strong><br><br>Students can read one of the biographies provided under Related Resources if they require further practice differentiating between fact and opinion. Assist students in differentiating between assertions made in their biographies that are opinions and facts. Ask students to write these assertions on sentence strips, which they can then use to hang on chart paper or a bulletin board they've made.<br>Assign pupils who are prepared to go above and beyond the call of duty to conduct a brief biography and interview of a person of their choosing. Make sure that the biographies that they&nbsp;write include both perspectives and facts. Permit them&nbsp;to present their bios to a companion. Next, assign them&nbsp;to identify the factual and subjective claims made in each other's work.<br>Give your students the task of rewriting factual statements as opinions, and vice versa.<br>Ask students to conduct a biographical sketch of a person they interviewed for a newspaper article. Students could submit these essays to a school publication.</p>