1. Welcome!
Language Arts
Ms. Marek
Friday, February 3, 2012

2. Independent Reading
Retrieve your library book
READ READ READ READ
READ READ READ

3. Schedule
Monday Allergic Reaction! OH NO!
Tuesday Purpose / Audience
Wednesday Purpose / Audience
Thursday Audience / Position
Friday Position / Celebrations
• Quiz on MONDAY – review vocab

4. OBJECTIVE
SWBAT identify
author’s opinion and
analyze text for bias

5. Think*Write*Share*
 In your opinion who will win the Super
Bowl this Sunday?
 Support your opinion with facts about
the teams!

6. Author’s Opinion
 Position
 Perspective
 Viewpoint
 Bias

7. Author’s Opinion
 In persuasive writing, the authors convince his
audience to agree with his opinion
 The author argues her opinion throughout the text
 Effective authors use evidence or facts to support
their opinion because facts are indisputable. Facts
cannot be argued against, because they are true.
 An argument is called valid, when it is constructed so
well that you cannot argue against it.
 Effective arguments anticipate the opinion of the
audience in order to address and dispute other
perspectives

8. Good pieces of evidence ..
 Facts
– Statistics
– Evidence from formal studies
 Reliable sources
– Experts in the field
 1st hand accounts
– People who have witnessed or experienced the event or
situation

9. Process steps
6. Summarize the author's argument in
one sentence.
7. Why should we agree with the
author? What reasons does s/he
provide to support his/her argument
8. What evidence does the author use?

10. The lunch crowd fills restaurants everyday, but high school students
are not allowed to leave campus during lunch. If students are
responsible enough to return to school on time, they should be
allowed to leave campus during lunch. An off campus lunch is
advantageous to the school for many reasons. With an off campus
lunch, schools can reduce the number of students in the cafeteria and
not lose any money. The school currently pays many cafeteria
workers to serve lunch to a large number of students; these jobs
would not have to exist if off-campus lunch was an option. Also,
security guards would not have to worry about stopping students from
leaving school grounds and the force could be cut down and focus on
more important safety issues. Therefore, 80% of jobs could be
reduced and the school could save a substantial amount of money per
year by offering off campus lunch. Also, the high school students
would have more freedom, which is something they need to get used
to as they enter the “real world”.

11. Author’s Opinion
 Read excerpt two from President Obama’s State of
the Union Address
 Determine President Obama’s opinion about the
future of immigration policy
 Summarize his argument in one sentence
 What reasoning does he provide to support his
argument?
 What evidence does he use?
 Does he anticipate other arguments? If so, where
and how?

12. REMINDERS
READ READ READ!
Start thinking about a book you
want to read.
READ READ READ!