Erin Waddell

Lesson: November 29, 2018

Class: Ms. Campbell, Wilson Elementary, 4th Grade
Comprehension Mini-lesson
Lesson: Fact and Opinion with Dear Mrs. LaRue
Date: November 29, 2018
Duration: ~30 minutes

The purpose of a comprehension lesson is for students to develop skills that help gain an
understanding of the text and connect it to what they already know. In this specific lesson,
students will work on identifying what the speaker feels and what occurs in the story. This focus
on fact and opinion will allow students to practice both distinguishing facts from opinions and
finding these elements within a text. This can then be used by students on a broader scope,
allowing them to think critically when reading a text where fact and opinion are both present,
and to be alert of bias, which might cause opinions to be stated as facts.

This lesson will be a whole-class lesson.

Materials:
- Book: Dear Mrs. LaRue by Mark Teague
- Fact/Opinion Chart Worksheets

Procedure:
1. The lesson will begin with teaching the definitions of “fact” and “opinion.” I will ask
students what they think “fact” means, and what they think “opinion” means. After
letting them share their ideas, I will tell them that:
Fact: The quality of being actual
Opinion: A person’s or group’s thoughts, feelings, or beliefs about something
(~5 min.)
2. Next, I will explain the next activity to the class: As I read the book Dear Mrs. LaRue to
the class, they will fill out a chart of facts and opinions that they hear from the characters
in the story. Since the dog, Ike, also shares information to his owner that is not true, there
is an extra column on the chart for “false facts,” where students will put statements that
Ike shares as facts, but that are not actually true. (~3 min.)
3. I will hand out the chart, ask if there are any questions, and then begin reading.
Throughout the story, I will pause occasionally for the students to write down their
statements on the chart. (15-20 min.)
4. After reading the book, I will ask a few students to share one statement from their list,
and will ask students if they agree with how it was categorized. (~3 min.)
5. To end the lesson, students will be asked to write a short letter from Ike’s perspective,
creating their own fact, false fact, and opinion to share with Mrs. LaRue. (~5 min.)
Facts and Opinions based on Dear Mrs. LaRue
Facts False Facts Opinions
 Facts and Opinions based on Dear Mrs. LaRue
Write a short letter from Ike’s perspective to Mrs. LaRue. Include one fact, one
false fact, and one opinion. Underline the fact in green, the false fact in blue, and
the opinion in red.

Dear Mrs. LaRue,

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________
 Facts and Opinions based on Dear Mrs. LaRue
In this lesson, students explored the difference between fact and opinion.

The plan was to complete this mini-lesson after students had already had an

introductory lesson on the two concepts. Because of school being cancelled due to

snow and ice, the students had not yet covered this. I adjusted my lesson to include

an introduction to facts and opinions, and my CT thought this lesson would be

good to “pre-teach” the concepts so that students would grasp it better when she

caught the class up to their regular schedule.

The opening activity went well, and students quickly seemed to understand

the difference between facts and opinions. They did struggle with statements such

as “my favorite color is blue” because though it is someone’s opinion about which

color is the best, stating your favorite color is a fact about yourself. Students also

shared examples of facts and opinions, which let them get engaged and also

allowed me to evaluate if they seemed to understand what fell into which category.

Students really loved the book, and they were very engaged with the lesson. I read

the book out loud, projecting it on the Smart Board. Though this worked fairly

well, I was only able to show half of a page at once in order for the text on the page

to be read-able on the screen. After each page, I paused and asked students to share

facts and opinions they noticed, which they wrote down on the chart I had handed

out. I also pointed out statements that students did not notice if it was one that I

thought would highlight why something would be a fact or an opinion. We did run
 Facts and Opinions based on Dear Mrs. LaRue
out of time at the end, so the writing activity was a bit rushed. Students still

seemed to enjoy it, but I had to encourage them to write quickly so that they could

make it to their next part of their daily schedule.

This lesson went very smoothly, but if I were to do it again, I would explain

my expectations more clearly. Since I was not grading the papers, I was more

focused on whether they understood the concept than that they filled out the

worksheet correctly. In this case, it worked well, but I think it would have helped

students to have an expectation of writing a certain amount of items in each

category. Also, I would love for them to have had more time with the writing

activity, so if I were teaching with this lesson, I might push it to the next day or

make it part of the writing block so that students could complete the prompt. Since

they were rushed, they were not able to invest in their writing very much. Students

mentioned how much they enjoyed this book and this lesson to me many times,

even in letters to me at the end of the semester, so I think they would have enjoyed

putting more time and effort into their writing activity.

I enjoyed teaching this comprehension lesson to the whole class, but if the

lesson being taught is dependent on reading levels, I would group students

according to the readability level of the text they are working with. Lessons taught

to the whole class, such as fact and opinion, could be explained to everyone with a

joint activity and then students could work on what they learned with reading
 Facts and Opinions based on Dear Mrs. LaRue
passages at their appropriate level. I would include comprehension in the reading

block of the day, sharing that block with work on fluency and word study. When

going over certain areas of comprehension, I would make sure to have a variety of

activities that allow students to understand what is being taught and also practice it.

Giving enough time for them to practice a concept is important so that students can

grow to use strategies independently.

Using the strategies taught in comprehension lessons and also strategies on

how to write well, students will be encouraged to put these into practice through

their own writing. Various prompts will be used throughout the year to give

students a variety of ways to write and use what they have learned in class.

Different formats and styles will accompany writing lessons, and students will

practice putting them into their work. My practicum class has time to write each

day, and they start with pre-writing and move toward a final draft that is then

presented. I liked how it was emphasized each day and that students could work at

their own pace until the deadline approached. In my own classroom, I also hope to

build writing into my daily classroom routine.