Readings For Opinion

Turn any student into a bookworm with a few easy and practical strategies Donalyn Miller says she has yet to meet a child she can’t turn into a reader. No matter how far behind Miller's students might be when they reach her 6th grade classroom, they end up reading an average of 40 to 50 books a year. Miller's unconventional approach dispenses with drills and worksheets that make reading a chore. Instead, she helps students navigate the world of literature and gives them time to read books they pick out themselves. Her love of books and teaching is both infectious and inspiring. In the book, you’ll find: Hands-on strategies for managing and improving your own school library Tactics for helping students walk on their own two feet and continue the reading habit after they’ve finished with your class Data from student surveys and end-of-year feedback that proves how well the Miller Method works The Book Whisperer includes a dynamite list of recommended "kid lit" that helps parents and teachers find the books that students really like to read.

Guide students through writing about their opinion using Stella's experiences as she chooses a topic, states her opinion, and lists supporting reasons.

Examining a central assumption widely accepted as being crucial in making democracy work - that politicians form a more or less accurate image of public opinion and take that perception into account when representing citizens - Politicians' Reading of Public Opinion and its Biases presents a paradox of representation. On the one hand, politicians invest enormously in reading public opinion. They are committed to finding out what the people want and public opinion is a key consideration in many of their undertakings. Yet, on the other hand, politicians' perceptions of public opinion are surprisingly inaccurate. Politicians are hardly better at estimating public opinion than ordinary citizens are. Their perceptions are distorted by social projection, in the sense that politicians' own opinion affects their estimations, and on top of that, there seems to be a systematic right-wing bias in these perceptions. The findings imply that one of the main paths to responsive policy-making is flawed. Even though politicians do the best they can to learn about people's preferences, skewed perceptions put them on the wrong track. From a democratic perspective, the central findings of the book are quite sobering. The high hopes that many authors had with regard to politicians' ability to adequately 'consult' or 'sense' public opinion appear to be vain. The book puts forward a plausible driver of the slippage between the public and politics. Politicians are less responsive to people's preferences than they could be, not because they do not want to be responsive but because they base themselves on erroneous public opinion perceptions.

Public opinion is one of the most elusive and complex concepts in democratic theory, and we do not fully understand its role in the political process. Reading Public Opinion offers one provocative approach for understanding how public opinion fits into the empirical world of politics. In fact, Susan Herbst finds that public opinion, surprisingly, has little to do with the mass public in many instances. Herbst draws on ideas from political science, sociology, and psychology to explore how three sets of political participants—legislative staffers, political activists, and journalists—actually evaluate and assess public opinion. She concludes that many political actors reject "the voice of the people" as uninformed and nebulous, relying instead on interest groups and the media for representations of public opinion. Her important and original book forces us to rethink our assumptions about the meaning and place of public opinion in the realm of contemporary democratic politics.

**This is the chapter slice "Using Graphic Organizers to Identify Fact and Opinion" from the full lesson plan "Reading Comprehension"** A child’s ability to read and comprehend the written word is his touchstone to success in school and in life. The primary object of our Reading Comprehension guide is to teach the reading skills that are basic to reading fluency and understanding in all subject areas and situations. Reading is the most essential communication skill in our society. For this reason, the author has given emphasis to many of the primary building blocks of reading acquisition, such as using context clues, determining main idea, and understanding inferences. “Reading Comprehension” emphasize important concepts and appear throughout this series. Definitions of important terms and many opportunities to practice the skills being taught also make this book user-friendly and easy to understand. In addition, the objectives used in this book are structured using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning to ensure educational appropriateness. All of our content meets the Common Core State Standards and are written to Bloom's Taxonomy.

Reading Skills Activities | Reading Comprehension | Facts and Opinions Improve Overall Reading Comprehension with Targeted Specific Skill Practice! Focusing on one comprehension skill at a time gives students the opportunity to master that skill and improve their general reading and comprehension skills. Fact & Opinion: Being able to tell a fact from an opinion is an important reading skill to master. It allows the reader to make a sound judgment about the information presented in a story. To introduce this skill, explain the difference between a fact and an opinion. Fact: a fact is something that is true about a subject. It can be tested and proven. Opinion: an opinion is what someone thinks or feels about a subject. Skill Specific Activities There are 15 high-interest, short stories in this selection include a variety of fiction and non-fiction topics. The follow up questions guide students to Facts and Opinions. Each story is numbered instead of having a title. The last question for each story asks the students to give the story a title. This important activity helps to determine the student’s level of understanding the story’s main idea. Visual Lesson Each story has an engaging illustration designed to bring the story to life and help capture the interest of reluctant readers. To help sharpen inference skills, students can be asked to use the illustration to predict what the story is about. Teaching Opportunities These targeted activities are great for one-on-one intervention, small groups of students at multiple skill levels or whole class participation. Can be used for remediation, review, and transition classes. Details: Each short story is between 140 and 160 words and is written at a 3.0 to 4.5 reading level according to the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Scale. The interest level is grades 4 and up. Contents Include: • 15 high-interest, short stories • 15 pages of skill-specific questions focusing on Facts and Opinions • Answer Key

Reading Skills Activities | Reading Comprehension | Facts and Opinions Improve Overall Reading Comprehension with Targeted Specific Skill Practice! Focusing on one comprehension skill at a time gives students the opportunity to master that skill and improve their general reading and comprehension skills. Fact & Opinion: Being able to tell a fact from an opinion is an important reading skill to master. It allows the reader to make a sound judgment about the information presented in a story. To introduce this skill, explain the difference between a fact and an opinion. Fact: a fact is something that is true about a subject. It can be tested and proven. Opinion: an opinion is what someone thinks or feels about a subject. Skill Specific Activities There are 15 high-interest, short stories in this selection include a variety of fiction and non-fiction topics. The follow up questions guide students to Facts and Opinions. Each story is numbered instead of having a title. The last question for each story asks the students to give the story a title. This important activity helps to determine the student’s level of understanding the story’s main idea. Visual Lesson Each story has an engaging illustration designed to bring the story to life and help capture the interest of reluctant readers. To help sharpen inference skills, students can be asked to use the illustration to predict what the story is about. Teaching Opportunities These targeted activities are great for one-on-one intervention, small groups of students at multiple skill levels or whole class participation. Can be used for remediation, review, and transition classes. Details: Each short story is between 140 and 160 words and is written at a 2.0 to 3.5 reading level according to the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Scale. The interest level is grades 4 and up. Contents Include: • 15 high-interest, short stories • 15 pages of skill-specific questions focusing on Facts and Opinions • Answer Key

"Contains lessons and tools to move your students through both reading and writing arguments and opinions. The instructional path is clear and easy to follow, supplementing your language arts instruction with resources designed to hone in on arguments and opinions. Use this guide to inform your instruction, from speaking and listening to reading and then making the writing connection."--Teacher's Resource Guide Information, page 5.