Writers tell the story of their own lives and mix what happened with how it felt. One question will help you pull the two apart.
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Students will tell an autobiography from a biography, learn the test for fact and opinion, and use it on Helen Keller's account of the day her teacher came to her, sorting real sentences from it.
A fact can be proved true or false by checking: a date, an event, a name. An opinion is a feeling or a belief that can't be proved, and it often shows up in words like best, wonderful, important or difficult.
Autobiographers mix both, and that's what makes the writing worth reading. Keller states facts (the date, who sent the doll) and opinions (the most important day of her life), and often a figure of speech carries a feeling, which also can't be proved.
Thinking an opinion is a wrong answer. Opinions can be true, wise and well supported, and they're still opinions, because you can't prove them by looking something up.
Treating a feeling stated in the first person as a fact. “I was happy” is something only the writer can know, which makes it a report of a feeling, and the lesson counts it as an opinion.
Have the student say the test question out loud for every sentence he sorts: could this be proved? If he can name a way to check it, the answer is a fact.
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Before You Start
The words this lesson uses. Tap a card to see what it means, then come back to them whenever a question uses one.
Part One
Questions about the story you just read. Pick your answer straight off, or press Find it in the story if you would rather hunt for the sentence first.
Part Two
The word cards are at the top of this page. Look back at them as often as you need, then answer.