Instructional Software

Lesson Idea Name: Facts Vs. Opinions

Content Area: Writing

Grade Level(s): 1st

Content Standard Addressed: Students will be able write about a given book stating their opinion and giving
reason for their opinion.

ELAGSE1W1: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or the name of the book they are writing
about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.

Technology Standard Addressed: Empowered Learner 1.1: Students leverage technology to take an active
role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the
learning sciences.

Selected Technology Tool:

BrainPop

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable and goes directly to the lesson):

https://www.brainpop.com/english/writing/factandopinion/

Type of Instructional Software:

☐ Drill and Practice X Tutorial ☐ Simulation ☐ Instructional Game ☐ e-books/e-references

Features of this software (check all that apply):

X Assessment Monitoring/Reporting

X Allows teacher to create customized lessons for students

X Multi-user or collaborative functions with others in the class

☐ Multi-user or collaborative with others outside the class

X Accessible to students beyond the school day

X Accessible via mobile devices

X Multiple languages

X Safety, security and/or privacy features

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Level(s):

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X Remembering X Understanding X Applying ☐ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration:

☐ Infusion Level: Students may work at a higher Bloom’s Level, but they do not have any “Voice or Choice”
during the activity and most of the decisions are made by the teacher.

X Integration Level: We would like to see ALL lessons/activities reach this level. The project is student-driven.
Students have “Voice and Choice” in the activities, selecting the topic of study and determining the
technology tool to demonstrate mastery of the standard. The teacher becomes more of a facilitator.

☐ Expansion Level: The projects created are shared outside of the classroom, publishing student work and
promoting authorship. This could be reached by showcasing the project on the school’s morning
newscast, posting the project to the classroom blog, or publishing via an outside source.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

The technology tool selected will help support all students by utilizing multiple means of representation as
well as student engagement. Students will be able to view a video, work individually or with a partner,
physically write, film a video or use technology to fill in and create an organizer etc. The reason that this tool
will support all learners is because it gives students choices and allows the teacher to allow students to pick
options that will best support them. For students that need extra support there are templates for the
organizers. It also caters to students that need extensions by allowing them to create their own graphic
organizer. The teacher has the ability to use this website in many different ways which is why this is a great
activity to cater to different students individual needs.

Lesson idea implementation:

The teacher will start by asking the students to recall what they already know about facts and opinions
through a classroom discussion. The teacher will then state the learning objective/goals for the day: I will be
able to write about and explain my opinion about the book Junie B. Jones and the Yucky Blucky Fruitcake, and
I will be able to say the differences between a fact and opinion.

The teacher will play the “Facts and Opinions” video from BrainPop while the students watch. They will then
utilize the quiz at the end of the video to be used as a formative assessment and gauge student
understanding of the concept. Students will then be given the choice to use the tools on BrainPop to further
practice identifying the difference between opinions and facts. Students will be given the ability to choose
between making a graphic organizer or map individually, or work with a partner and make a short video. The
students will be asked to identify three things learned from the video about facts and opinions. They will then
have to provide one statement that is a fact and one statement that is an opinion. This will not be graded and

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is meant to be a quick assessment of if the students are understanding the concepts or if they need more
support. This will also give them more practice with the concept. Once completed, the teacher will then allow
the students to share their work with their tablemates for five minutes. The teacher will do a quick recap of
what the differences between fact and opinion are and ask the students to help him/her.

The students will then be assessed on their learning by writing a paragraph containing one of their
opinions and the explanation of that opinion from the book read in class Junie B Jones and the Yucky Blucky
Fruitcake. The teacher will allow students to be creative with what part of the book they want their opinion to
be about. For students that need support there will be sentence frames provided to help scaffold their
writing. To provide feedback to the students, the teacher will have a brief conference with each student
discussing what they did well, and possible areas of improvement. Based on the gathered data from the
students’ turned in paragraph, the teacher can use this information to see what areas students still need
support in and which concepts they are doing well with.

Reflective Practice:

This lesson would be used as more of an introduction to the topic of opinion writing. I think that having the
students watch a video which delivers the content, review what they learned via the quiz, practice what they
know with a partner or individually, and then write their own opinion piece that connects to the book they
are reading in class would really make the concept concrete. These activities would engage the students as
well as support understanding and comprehension rather than memorization. To further extend this lesson,
students could later analyze a piece of writing and pick out the facts and opinions imbedded. This could also
be an introduction to a unit discussing persuasive writing and students could use what they know about facts
and opinions to write a persuasive essay to their teacher. One piece of technology that could be used with
this activity could be “Bubbl.us”. This tool allows students to create their own “map” or graphic organizer to
help develop their writing.

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