Facts versus Opinions

Have students access the student chapter Facts versus Opinions and ask students to identify which of these is a statement of fact, and which is an opinion:

1. The moon is round.

2. The moon is beautiful.

3. The moon goes around the Earth.

4. The moon is made of green cheese.

5. The moon was formed when another planet struck the Earth.

6. Going to the moon was humanity’s greatest achievement.

7. Going to the moon was a waste of money.

Now ask students to compare the sentences you’ve identified as facts with the ones that are opinions.

You may consider drawing up a two-column chart on the board or have students make one, to group the two categories together visually.

How are all the fact statements similar to one another?

How are all the opinion statements similar?

How are the fact and opinion statements similar?

Let students discuss this for a few minutes and read through the rest of the chapter with the class.

Next, go through the statements again and ask students why each one is either a statement of fact or an opinion.

Now list these three opinion statements:

• The moon is beautiful.
• Going to the moon was humanity’s greatest achievement.
• Going to the moon was a waste of money.

Ask students:

How are these similar and how are they different?

• After a short discussion, tell students that “the moon is beautiful” is the odd one out (in other words, which of these does not fit with the other two.)

Now ask:

• What makes it different from the other two?
• If it is different, how are the other two statements similar to one another?

Let students discuss this question for a few minutes and ask:

• If you believed that the moon is beautiful, could anyone ever convince you that wasn’t true?
• If you believed that going to the moon was a waste of money, could anyone ever convince you that wasn’t true?

Explain to students that you can’t really use facts to convince someone that the moon is beautiful, because we all have different ideas of what “beautiful” is. You could use facts to convince someone of the last two opinions. This is called making an argument.