Learning to tell fact from opinion is one of the most important reading skills students learn in school. It’s so important that the topic is repeated at incrementally harder levels each school year throughout elementary school.
What’s a fact?
A fact is a statement or information that is known to be true.
For example:
The world is round.
My house is a 10-minute walk from school.
What’s an opinion?
An opinion is a view or judgement formed about something.
For example:
My favorite color is blue.
Oreo cookies taste better than oat and raising cookies.
The difference between fact and opinion?
Why is it important to tell the difference between facts and opinions in reading?
When reading history books, a newspaper or an ad for a product, it’s important to decipher fact from opinion. Telling facts and opinions apart in texts will serve students for a lifetime: from knowing how advertisers get them to buy products to analyzing news stories and their sources.
The ability to distinguish a ‘true statement’ from a ‘point of view’ helps students develop their critical and analytical skills in reading and listening. Learning these critical skills, will help students make informed arguments and decisions as they grow up.
Grade 2 fact or opinion worksheets
In these worksheets, students are asked to classify statements in a text as fact or opinion.
Fact or opinion practice for grade 3 students
Reading longer texts, students decipher statements as fact or opinion in these worksheets.
Distinguish fact from opinion in grade 4
Yet longer texts, we make it harder to decipher fact from opinion in these worksheets.
Fact vs. opinion worksheets for grade 5
For grade 5 students, we’ve created a series of letters from Uncle Ben to his nephew. Students have to work out what Uncle Ben tells his nephew is true and what is his opinion.
