Virginia SOL 1.RI.1.C
The Standard
Explain the difference between facts and opinions in a text.
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Key Ideas and Confirming Details
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students decide whether a statement can be checked and proven or tells what someone thinks or feels. They use text details and clue words to explain their choice.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly sort statements by whether they can be proven. They explain their choices using details from the text and words that signal personal judgment.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think any sentence they agree with is a fact. They may also mistake strong feeling words, such as best or boring, for proof.
How to Assess It
- Give students four statements about an animal, with two facts and two opinions. Have them label each and explain one choice.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs fact and opinion sentence cards to sort, then ask them to underline words that helped them decide.
Read two statements about recess and ask, “Which can be proven, and which tells someone’s view?”
Play Fact or Opinion Corners by reading statements aloud and having students move to the matching labeled corner.
Examine a cereal box and separate checkable nutrition claims from opinions such as “the tastiest breakfast.”
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Printable 1.RI.1.C Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 9.RI.1.C
Distinguish among, facts, reasoned judgments, and/or speculation in texts to determine where a position/argument is to be confirmed, disproved, or modified.
- 3.W.1.D
Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with facts and reasons.
- 2.RI.1.C
Differentiate facts from opinions within a text.
- 4.RI.1.C
Distinguish between fact and opinion and explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support opinions within texts.
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