Opinion Writing

Yesterday, students learned about the difference between opinions vs facts.

Facts are any statements that can be verified through evidence and are universally accepted as truths. For example: lions have fur.

Opinions are any statements that express how a person thinks or feels about a topic. For example, lions are amazing animals. Students were taught that such a statement would be considered an opinion as not everyone believes that lions are amazing. To show this, students were asked about their opinions on such statements through a show of hands.

However, the sentence, 'lions have fur' is a fact as students can verify the information. Thus, facts do not leave room for disagreement, whereas opinions do.

As a class, we practiced distinguishing between facts and opinions through the worksheet titled, Fact vs Opinion.

We then learned how to write opinion pieces. There are three parts to opinion writing

1. Introduction: State your opinion regarding a topic.
2. Reasons: Three reasons supporting your opinion.
3. Conclusion. 'Restating' your opinion in a different manner from your introduction. For example: 'These are the reasons why I think cats make the best pet.'