Connect Across the Curriculum

Literary Analysis: Analyze Facts and Opinions
Academic Vocabulary

  • • discuss (di-skus) verb When you discuss something, you talk about it.

In her journal, Samantha includes both facts and opinions.

  • • An opinion is a personal judgment. Words like I believe or I think sometimes signal an opinion.

Friday night we heard that a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico might be coming our way. Not a big deal, I thought.

  • • A fact is something that can be proved. For example, you can check the weather report to prove this fact:

By Saturday morning, the hurricane’s projected path showed New Orleans getting a direct hit.

Practice Together

With a group, read this passage about another teen’s experience during Hurricane Katrina. Discuss it. Notice the facts and opinions.

On the news, the reporter said the wind is blowing at over 120 miles per hour in my hometown. We packed and went to a shelter right away. I feel safer here than I did at home. This shelter has room for more than 7,000 people, but it is almost full. This is a scary time for all of us.

Try It!

Read another passage about the teen and discuss it. How could you prove the facts? Which words are opinions? How do you know?

It has been a month since the hurricane. Our family has a trailer to live in. There are only two beds, so space is a little tight. But we are glad to be together in our own place. There are five other trailers on our block. One of my friends lives in one of them. Everything is so different in my neighborhood, so I’m very glad that there is someone I know nearby.