Activities

1. Given a list of statements, identify each as a fact or opinion.

2. Identify characteristics of facts and opinions.

3. Recall text without personal opinions or judgments.

3. Analyze information within a given text to determine the central idea or theme.

4. Generate additional titles for a given passage or additional headings or sub-headings for a section of text.

6. Analyze information within a given text to determine the central idea or theme.

7. Generate additional titles for a given passage or additional headings or sub-headings for a section of text.

Answer Key/Rubric

1. Student correctly identifies given statements as fact or opinion.
   
   
2. Student identifies characteristics of facts and opinions.  Student understands the difference between facts and opinions.  Student understands that a fact is strictly defined and can be proven true or false often using statistics, evidence or some type of measuring device.  Student understands an opinion is a belief, value or an expression of a person’s feelings that cannot be proven.
   
   
3. Student recalls text without personal opinions or judgments.  Student is accurate in retelling, remembering events, dialogue and the sequence of events when important to the retelling.  Student does not interject personal opinion, evaluations or judgments into the retell. 
   
   
4. Student identifies and locates an idea or trend in the author’s craft that occurs repeatedly in all or most of the paragraphs of a short passage.  Student underlines the recurring idea or trend in author’s craft in each paragraph that it appears.  Student recognizes events, ideas or instances of author’s craft that are repetitive in nature or have similar meanings.  This may include a character that repeats certain phrases, events that have parallel features or a distinct feature in the author’s writing.  The student should be able to speak to why he underlined a recurring idea or trend in author’s craft and how this may be significant to the meaning of the text.
   
   
5. Student writes a paragraph to summarize a given text while leaving out personal opinion.  Student includes important details and discards extraneous information when retelling and does not include personal opinions or evaluations.  Student can paraphrase information and condense the information while accurately conveying the text meaning. 
   
   
6. Student analyzes information within the text to determine the central idea or theme.  Student categorizes similar events, ideas or instances of author’s craft.  Student recognizes events, ideas or instances of author’s craft that are repetitive in nature or have similar meanings to consider various messages.  Student chooses the strongest message by the amount and strength of textual support.  Student identifies the theme by generalizing the specific message within the text so that the message is now broad and fits various circumstances and people of the world.
   
   
7. Student generates an additional title for the passage or additional headings or sub-headings for a section of text.  Student has strategies for brainstorming ideas for the title.  For example, while considering the overall content of the text, the student may write a one-word title, then a two-word title, a three-word title, and so on or the student may try to find a sentence within the text which conveys the overall idea and change the wording without changing the meaning, etc..   Student generates several titles in order to choose one that will predict the content or is the most fitting for the passage.  Student may also brainstorm ideas that will catch the reader’s interest while conveying the overall idea of the passage, and possibly reflect the tone and slant of the writing.