Standard 3: Critical Reading and Writing

Students will apply critical thinking skills to reading and writing.

 For more specific genre information, please refer to Genre Guidance (page 4 of the Support Documents.).

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will identify factual claims (based on verifiable information).

• Students will identify an opinion ( a view that is formed about something not based on facts or knowledge).

• Students will ask, “Can I locate evidence that will support the claim? Yes, it is a claim.  No, then it is an opinion.”

• Students will look for types of adjectives to distinguish factual claim from opinion:

• Descriptive adjectives: beneficial, unfair, expensive, etc.

• Comparative adjectives: better, more important, stronger, etc.

• Superlative adjectives: best, most interesting, least effective, most influential, etc. 

• Teachers model how to tell the difference between facts and opinions.

• Teachers provide multiple opportunities for students to work on separating facts and opinions.

• Teachers will monitor to make sure factual claims are being distinguished from opinions.  

• Teachers will remind students that a fact is information through is definite and can be confirmed by research or observation. 

Supporting Resources

Teacher Insights

• smekeneducation.com: distinguishing reason from evidence(webpage)
• smekenseducation.com:argumentative vs persuasive (webpage)

• A factual claim is an assertion in which the writer provides factual evidence to support the claim.

• A factual claim relies on concrete facts as evidence.

• Example: Soda is bad for humans.

• An opinion is an expression of a person’s feelings.

• Example: Tea is better than soda.

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.