Lesson Plan

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Title: Fact and Opinion

 

Creator: Beth Shaw McGuire, Senior Museum Educator, Ackland Art Museum

 

Subject: fact and opinion                  Course: American History    (Grade Level: 2 – 12)

 

Unit Plan: critical thinking with primary source materials and interpretation of art.

 

Standards:

Competency Goal 4: The learner will relate ideas and information to life experiences. (2nd grade)


Objectives

4.01.3

Select one graphic, one fact from a print source, and one fact from a non-print source. Share with others.

 

Lesson Goals:

1. Students will review definitions of the words fact and opinion.

2. Students will identify whether a statement is a fact or an opinion, citing criteria from the definition or   

    other relevant sources.

3. Students will use a work of art or details from it to justify their reasoning.

    (Culminating activity)

 

Differentiation:

Several ways to facilitate this activity exist; two distinct options are below, with a third, less fully articulated option using a different graphic organizer (a decision tree) as its premise. Select the option that seems the most relevant and feasible for your students.

 

Duration: 

30 to 60 minutes, depending upon the number of statements, and the age and number of students.

 

Teacher Materials:

 

·         For high-school students, see the statements in the document called FandOLRBostonMassacre.doc to use with prints of Larry Rivers’ Boston Massacre.

·         For younger students interested in more art-oriented discussion see the statements in the document called FandOSSRedDurango.doc to use with prints of Sean Scully’s Red Durango.  

·         blank canvas

·        cards for fact and opinion

·        2 flip charts, one for fact/opinion criteria; the other with statements written on them.

 

Student Materials:

 

Reproductions of relevant print, one for each pair of students or one for each student. 

 

 

 

 

Preparation:  

1. Ask students to consider the difference between a fact and an opinion. The teacher will then offer a flip chart outlining the definition of each term. (This could be divided into two columns with the characteristics of each (see below). NOTE: The author altered the Webster Collegiate Dictionary versions in this and other ways to make it simpler, putting the definitions used in bold and italics, and focusing on the information outside the parentheses. Brackets indicate text that the author added to simplify definitions for younger students; in this case, 2nd graders. 

 

A fact may be defined as:

1.      a thing done (as a crime) or an action

2.      something that is real; in a painting or sculpture, something that is true and that everyone agrees may be seen

3.      a piece of information presented as being real or true

 

on chart:

  • a piece of information that is real or true
  • a piece of information that has evidence to back it up
  • the evidence can be experienced through the senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste)

In an art museum, we focus on SIGHT for our evidence.

 

An opinion may be defined as:

1.      a [point of ] view, judgment, (or appraisal) in the mind about a particular matter [an opinion is a statement that tells your point of view about something]

2.      (approval, esteem)

3.      (belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge)

4.      a generally held view

5.      an [idea stated] (formal expression) by an expert of his judgment or advice, based on reasons and principles

 

on chart:

  • a point of view about something
  • a judgment about something
  • a sentence or statement that tells a point of view

 

Procedures: 

Option A for elementary students

 

Directions:

  1. Give all students two cards; one with the word “Fact” with a huge F on it, the other with the word “opinion” and the letter O. The teacher explains that she will point to a sentence and ask students to decide whether that sentence is a fact or an opinion based on the criteria just established on the other flip chart and the earlier discussion. 
  2. Ask students to justify their choice by using their statement and evidence in the work of art. Remind students that if they select fact, that most of the people in the group should be able to see the reasons why this statement is a fact in the picture. If they say it is an opinion, students should be able to say why it is an opinion. 
  3. Students will then vote for their choice by holding up the appropriate card. The teacher will discuss each sentence with the student, identify whether it is a fact or opinion, and offer opportunities to give the reasons why, clarifying as necessary.
  4. As students make their way through the list of statements, the teacher places a sticky identifying the nature of the statement (fact or opinion) next to it so that students can refer back to the previous choices, and use their understanding of them to support future choices.

 

NOTE: You may want to use a decision tree graphic organizer instead, using the title of the work of art as the “trunk,” and the words “fact” and “opinion” at the top of the two branches that emerge from the trunk. A single student or pairs of students get a strip with a sentence on it, and place their statement under the branch they think most appropriate; students should explain their reasoning in front of the group.

 

Option B for older students:

Directions:

  1. Before students arrive, create three columns, one small one on either side of a very wide column in the middle. Label the first small column “fact,” the wide column “statement,” and the third column “opinion.”
  2. Review the definitions of fact and opinion, and the criteria for each.
  3. Give each student a reproduction of the relevant work of art, or one for every two students to share with each other. 
  4. Give each student a set of dots, one for each statement. Tell students to read the statement, and vote whether the statement is a fact or an opinion by putting a dot in the appropriate column next to that statement. Remind students to be prepared to justify their statement using evidence in the work, analyzing the statement offered, and their prior knowledge.
  5. Once students have completed voting, review them with students, asking them for justification for their ideas, including what language makes it a fact or an opinion. If it is unclear, ask students to make recommendations for changing the text to be more clearly a fact or an opinion. 
  6. Once finished with all of the statements, ask students to think about the overall meaning of the work for a few minutes, and to write a brief statement about the work and its meaning. Ask students to consider whether their idea of the work’s meaning relates to the facts and opinions, and how.

 

Culminating Activities:

1. Ask students to select another work of art, do some research on it, and to write at least 3 fact and 3

    opinion statements for it. 

2. Ask students to test their statements out on someone they know at school, home, or somewhere

    else. What did they discover about their writing and the work of art through this process?

3. Ask students to share their work of art, their questions, and their findings with you.

 

Assessment:

1. Students accurately identified a statement as a fact or an opinion, or argued successfully for why  

    the statement was not what you thought the statement to be.

2. Students treated each other with respect by listening carefully to each other and disagreeing with

    each other by using appropriate language and citing evidence in the statement and the work.

 

For culminating activity:

  1. Students selected a work of art and wrote at least three fact and three opinion statements for the work.
  2. Students showed evidence of having facilitated the activity with at least one other person, and wrote down their results in an understandable way.
  3. Students clearly articulated (in writing) their understanding of the work of art and their fact and opinion writing.

 

Supplemental Resources: These can be “hotlinks” or attached documents in Learning Village

Larry Rivers sites:

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=1852&page=1

(Tate Gallery’s collection of Larry Rivers’ works; Boston Massacre images began on page 2, as of 9/1/05)

 

http://www.fi.muni.cz/~toms/PopArt/Biographies/rivers.html (brief biography of the artist)

 

Sean Scully sites: 

http://www.jca-online.com/scully.html (an interview with the artist)

 

http://search.famsf.org:8080/search.shtml?keywords=sean+scully

 

http://www.artnet.com/artist/15236/sean-scully.html

 

Technology Integration:

 

Relevant Websites: 

www.ackland.org

 

Key Focusing Questions:

·         What is a fact?

·         What is an opinion?

·         How do facts and opinions influence one’s interpretation of a work of art?

·         What makes an interpretation of a work of art (or piece of literature, non-fiction text, piece of music, etc.) convincing?

 

File Attachments:

·         FandOLRBostonMassacre.doc

·         FandOSSRedDurango.doc

 

 

This lesson plan and its distribution were made possible by a grant from the Wyeth Foundation, the William Hayes Ackland Trust, and the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.