Opinion Essays, Inference & Point of View

The big idea

Your child grows the opinion paragraph into a full essay with an introduction, body paragraphs, evidence, transitions and a conclusion. Next your child makes inferences from text clues and background knowledge and works out new words from context. The unit ends with the author's purpose and with telling their own point of view apart from the author's, the narrator's and the characters'.

Standards in plain words

• W.3.1 Writes opinion pieces that state an opinion, give reasons, use linking words and end with a conclusion.
• RL.3.1 Asks and answers questions about a story and points to the words in the text that show the answer.
• RI.3.1 Asks and answers questions about a nonfiction text and points to the words that show the answer.
• RL.3.3 Describes characters' traits, reasons and feelings and explains how their actions move the story along.
• RL.3.6 Tells the difference between their own point of view and that of the narrator or a character.
• RI.3.6 Tells the difference between their own point of view and the author's.
• L.3.4 Works out unknown words with sentence clues, prefixes and suffixes, root words, and glossaries or dictionaries.
• L.3.6 Learns and uses grade-level words, including words that show time and place.
• SL.3.1 Takes part in discussions: comes prepared, follows the rules, asks questions, builds on others' ideas and explains their own.
• SL.3.3 Asks and answers questions about what a speaker said, with useful detail.
• RF.3.3 Uses phonics and word parts, including prefixes, suffixes and syllables, to read new words.
• L.3.1 Uses correct grammar: parts of speech, plurals, verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, comparing words, joining words and different kinds of sentences.

Anchor texts

• Original mentor essay 'Every Kid Should Learn to Swim' and the article 'Trees in the City'
• Original inference stories and articles: 'Grandpa Joe's Garden,' 'Winter Visitors,' 'Kofi's Kite' and 'The Busy Beaver'
• Aesop's 'The Crow and the Pitcher' (public domain), used for inference in Week 22, and 'The Tortoise and the Hare' (public domain), retold from a character's view in Week 24
• Original how-to text 'How to Plant a Bean Seed' for author's purpose

Watch across the unit

• Watch for: Calling a restated reason 'evidence' ('Dogs are good buddies because they are great friends').

  Try: Ask 'Could I check this, see it, or did it happen to you?' If not, it is not evidence yet.

• Watch for: Guessing with no clue behind it, or copying a text clue as the inference.

  Try: Ask 'Which words told you that?' and 'Did the author say this exact thing?' Clues go in one column, inferences in another.

• Watch for: Mixing up their own opinion with a character's or the author's.

  Try: Ask 'Where does it say what the character thinks?' then 'And what do you think?' and write the two answers in different colors.