Learning the difference between fact vs. opinion is a crucial lifelong skill that our students need to have. It can also be a difficult concept for some students. Let’s look at some easy ways to teach it.
Play a Game
Not only is playing a game a great way to engage students, but it is also a fantastic way to get students to remember the information.
Opinion Game
One of my favorite games I like to play at the beginning of my opinion unit is a would you rather game. For would you rather you simply have students pick between two objects. By picking their favorite object, they are expressing their opinion. Between rounds you can also have them explain why they chose that object to a partner.
Facts Game
When I’m teaching fact vs opinion, I will teach opinions and facts separately. So one day is spent on an opinion game like outlined above, another day I’m teaching them about facts. One of my favorite no-prep games is thumbs up, thumbs down. Or you can ask students to write yes or no on a whiteboard.
This game involves providing statements that are a mix of facts and no facts. For younger students I like to use very obvious statements for the facts. I teach my students that facts usually involve numbers such as the date or time. An example statement I might give would be, “Independence Day is July 4th.”
One of the things we’re trying to get students to learn is that a fact can be verified and found to be true - there’s some kind of evidence. An opinion is based on someone’s thoughts or feelings.
Sorting Fact vs Opinion
Once students have a good grasp on the difference between facts by themselves and opinions by themselves, I’ll move onto facts and opinions together. If students do well with identifying them when they are mixed up, I know they have learned it.
One of the easy ways I teach fact vs opinion is to have students do a sort. I like to print off cards with a fact or opinion on each card and group my students into small groups up to 4 or 5. Then each group gets a set of cards and works to sort them into facts and opinions.
Different Types of Sorts
While you can do a traditional sort, you can also mix it up and try to gamify it. For example, you can have the groups put all the cards in the middle. When someone draws a card they must read it to the group and then explain why they think it is a fact or opinion. Then the next person draws a card and repeats the process. At the end you can decide whether the person with the most facts or opinions wins.
Another take on this idea is to play a fact vs opinion Go Fish. To play, you’ll need to have at least 2 sets of the same deck of cards. Next you’ll have to decide if you just want your students to recognize the facts and opinions, find the matching card, or find a fact that has the same topic as an opinion card. Students will take turns asking for a card from another player they’ve chosen. If the other player has it, they give it to that student. Otherwise, they tell them to Go Fish (or whatever phrase you’ve chosen for this version of the game).
Teaching fact vs opinion doesn’t have to be boring but can be done through a quick game. I recommend repeating one of these activities as a warm up each day of your opinion unit until it seems your students have a good grasp of identifying facts and opinions.
Want a done-for-you opinion writing unit? Check out this unit in my TpT shop.
