A fact is a statement that can be proven.  An opinion is someone’s personal beliefs, it cannot be looked up to be proven. 

The Iditarod is the longest sled-dog race in the world.

The Iditarod is the best sled-dog race in the world.

Which of these sentences is a fact, and which is an opinion? 

Go to your local library, or your school library.  Find a book about the Iditarod and check it out.  Read the book, making sure to look for facts and opinions. 

Post a comment telling us about the book you read.  Make sure you tell us the title and author of your book.  Pick one fact and one opinion to share from the book you read. 

When you are trying to decide whether something is real or fantasy, you need to ask yourself one question:  Could this REALLY happen in real life?  If the answer is yes, than you are discussing something that is real.  If the answer is no, than you are discussing fantasy. 

Take a look at the following clip:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-2099346604870847321" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

Is this real or fantasy?  Post reasons that back up your choice of real or fantasy.  If it is real, are there any parts in the animation that are fantasy?  If it is fantasy, are there any parts in the animation that could be real?  Share your thoughts.

Extend:

This animation was made with Alice 2.0, a free download available at www.alice.org.  Download this software with your parent/guardian permission and create your own real or fantasy animation.  Share it as a post to this blog.

Cause and effect is everywhere:

My stomach hurt because I ate ice cream and cookies for lunch. 

What happened in this sentence? My stomach hurt.  This is the effect.

Why did that happen?  Because I ate ice cream and cookies for lunch.  This is the cause.

Cause and effect always go together.  The cause is why something happened, and the effect is what happened. 

Let’s see if you can come up with some different effects for this cause:

It was raining outside.

This is the cause, therefore this is WHY our effect happened.  So now you tell me, what was the effect?  Post a comment beginning with the cause listed above.  Finish the sentence with the effect.  Let’s see how many different effects we can get for one cause!

Now that you have come up with effects for a specific cause, lets flip flop!  Here you see a picture.  This picture is going to be the effect of your sentence.  Remember, the effect is WHAT happened.  Your job is to come up with a cause for the effect…WHY did that happen?  Post your sentences to share!

Now that you have made your predictions, watch the end of the video:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-1523087732616069034" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

Was your prediction right? 

Take a look at the cover of the book The Relatives Came:

From the title of the book and the cover of the book, make a prediction about what you think the story is going to be about.  Post a comment sharing your thoughts.

Go to your local library, or even your school media center.  Check out the book The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant.  Read the book to see if your predictions were right. 

Have you ever read a book and guessed what would happen next before it even happened?  You were PREDICTING.  Predicting is making a guess about what you think is going to happen next based on what you already know.  You can make predictions about books, movies, T.V. shows, you can even predict what someone is going to say. 

Watch the following video.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=5557382056518493761" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

What do you think is going to happen next?

 Why do you think that? 

Post your prediction as a comment before continuing on to see if your prediction was right.

Welcome to the Elements of Reading blog!  In this blog you will find several different elements of reading, such as predicting, fact and opinion, cause and effect, and much more.  Each post will be focused on one specific element.  The best part of this blog though, is that it is INTERACTIVE.  This means that you get a chance to share your thoughts, comments, and questions.  So when you see questions written in the blog, they are meant to be answered!  Let’s get started…happy blogging!