Welcome back! We’ll start with some silent reading today and then continue looking at opinion pieces.

You’ve been working on reading opinion pieces and identifying the main idea and supporting details. You should have two Fishbone graphic organizers filled out (we did one on Homer Simpson, and one based on an article from the book “Don’t Label Me”). If you are not finished that, that’s what you should be working on.

If you are finished, you’re ready to move on to the following:

This unit is all about developing and supporting an opinion. There are different methods you can use to support your opinion and make your opinion, but some are stronger than others depending on your audience and purpose. Here are some methods of proof that people use when trying to support an opinion:

Methods of Proof

• Historical reference: events from the past that support an idea;
• Comparison;
• Personal observation;
• Logic and reason;
• Quotations: must be knowledgeable source and relevant;
• Authoritative reference: experts on the topic, must be recognized;
• Facts: research, generally accepted truths, statistics;
• Anecdotes: brief stories, incidents;
• Analogy: comparison of similar concept that explains a more difficult idea;
• Emotional appeal (must be used only to create a sympathetic reader: cannot be excessive).

The following text combines a graphic text with a non-fiction text. When you’re reading the written part of the text, determine what proofs the author is using.

Graphics like bar charts are used with written text because they can help clarify the main idea of the writing. They also condense a large amount of information into a small space. Charts can be tricky to read though, because we’re used to reading from left to right and top to bottom. Charts don’t always work that way. When you’re reading the chart, orient yourself to the chart by looking for the way the information is labeled. What information do you get when you read from left to right? What information do you get when you read from bottom to top?

Finally, think about how the chart and the writing support each other when it comes to communicating the author’s main idea.

Before reading, think about what you already learned about access to education in the previous activity.

Required Reading

Despite Progress – Millions Without Access to Education

by Felix Richter

Jan 30, 2015

Despite significant progress that has been made over the past decade, millions of children around the world are still without access to proper education. In 2012, more than 120 million children of primary school or lower secondary school age were not enrolled in school, according to a recent report published by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The problem is most severe in Sub-Saharan Africa where more than 50 million children don’t go to school. Providing children in less developed regions with access to basic education should be a top priority for the international community, as education is almost universally regarded as the most reliable pathway out of poverty.

This chart shows how many children still have no access to education in different parts of the world.

Richter, Felix. “Infographic: Despite Progress – Millions Without Access to Education.” Statista Infographics. 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 07 May 2016.

Reading Log

Don’t forget to log your reading. Log the reading you do during lessons like this one and for reading you do independently.

Opinion Pieces and Methods of Proof