Opinion polls greatly interest politicians and those who seek power. Everyone can have an opinion, but opinions that best influence others are usually based on some kind of supportive evidence. After reading Inkheart, either individually or as a class, students will conduct a sweep of the text for evidence that supports their answers to four different questions about the book's characters. Students will enrich and communicate their personal opinions by providing supportive key evidence.

Students will:

1. Discover how a literary selection can expand or enrich personal viewpoints and experiences
2. Use a variety of strategies to analyze words and text, draw conclusions, use context and word structure clues, and recognize organizational patterns
3. Ask questions and make observations that reflect understanding and application of content, processes, and experiences

Directions

Step 1: Have students view the Inkheart Speak Your Mind activity in Flashlight Readers. Tell them that although everyone is entitled to his own opinion, the most convincing opinions are based on evidence.

Step 2: Offer examples of op-ed writing by looking at the letters to the editor or opinion page of the local newspaper. Put a short letter to the editor on an overhead transparency or use an LCD panel to show an online version. Read the letter aloud and then, using a highlighter, underline the "opinion" portions of the letter in one color and the "supportive evidence" in another.

Step 3: Describe supportive evidence as facts that hold up an opinion like the legs of a table. Use the Table Worksheet (PDF) as a transparency to apply this concept to the letter to the editor already presented. Write the opinion on the tabletop and the supportive evidence on the legs. If the opinion is based on fewer than four pieces of evidence, it is not sturdy. The more pieces of evidence you have to support your opinion, the more convincing your opinion is. (A higher-level discussion on this topic could lead students to discover that the table-leg analogy isn't universally useful: for instance, an argument might be sound with only one piece of evidence supporting it, if that one piece were very strong. Furthermore, many pieces of evidence in support of an opinion might be weak, in the end, if they contradict each other, or are evidence of something related but not directly germane.)

Questions to discuss, either as a class or as writing or journal prompts:

• How much evidence do you think is needed to make an opinion worth following?
• Have you ever heard someone say, "Well, that's my opinion," but they had no facts to back it up? What is your response to this kind of argument?
• What causes a person to change his or her opinion over time? Have you ever experienced a time when your opinion changed? What changed it?

Step 4: In the beginning of Inkheart, Meggie held strong opinions about certain characters. She thought Dustfinger was selfish. She thought Elinor was heartless. She thought her father loved books more than he loved people. And she thought she herself was weak. Were Meggie's opinions based in fact? Break the class up into predetermined groups. Assign each group one of Meggie's opinions to investigate. Assign group roles:

• Recorder — the person who writes down the evidence they find on the Evidence Chart (PDF)
• Researcher — a person who finds the evidence
• Researcher — another person who finds the evidence
• Reporter — the person who researches evidence and reports findings to the class
• Timekeeper — the person who keeps the group on track and on time

Step 5: Make sure each group has a copy of Inkheart in order to accurately cite the evidence they find to support the opinion. Ideally, when they find supportive evidence, they should offer the page number on which it was found (good practice for the referencing of sources). Tell the students that what they discover may or may not support the opinion they've been given. Direct that they should write down all evidence for and against the opinion, and then indicate whether or not it supports the opinion. The sample evidence chart below will help. To model the process, first work as a class to find evidence for or against the opinion that Dustfinger is selfish. Use the evidence you find to fill in this chart on the overhead:

Dustfinger is selfish.
Page #	Evidence	Supports opinion?

Step 6: After the groups have had time to work, invite the reporter in each group to share the evidence they discovered about one of Meggie's opinions.

Questions you might ask now:

• Did you discover more evidence to support or refute Meggie's opinion?
• Does the evidence persuade you to agree or disagree with Meggie's initial opinion?
• Is there evidence for an opposing opinion? What is it?
• What is your group's opinion at this point? Whose side are you on?

Step 7: The purpose of an editorial or opinion piece is to get you to see the issue from the author's point of view, to get you to believe that the author's conclusion is true. The supportive evidence you find persuades you to come to the same conclusion as the author. Have students draft an editorial as if they worked on The Italian Coast Gazette in Inkheart's Speak Your Mind. Use this activity for guidance on how to structure an editorial.  Now that they've learned how to form an opinion, encourage them to find supportive evidence both for and against that opinion. NOTE: The Speak Your Mind online activity doesn't specify how many reasons students should provide for holding their opinion, but expect them to offer at least four reasons, as discussed as a class using the Table Worksheet.

Step 8: Peer evaluations of letters: conferencing with a peer

Have students share their drafts with a partner to see if they understand and can follow each other's arguments. Have students put up their draft on a class Web site or the Flashlight Readers Book Bulletin Board for other students to respond also. Ask students to consider the following questions. (They can copy and paste them at the end of their essays before the conference.) Their partners' answers should show that their arguments make sense.

What is the opinion statement?

How is the opinion explained?

What is the evidence to support the opinion? (3 or 4)

1.

2.

3.

How did the author back up each piece of evidence?

1.

2.

3.

What is the opposing opinion?

What is the writer's call to action?

Step 9: Review students' first drafts using the rubric (PDF).

Step 10: Have students make revisions based on both teacher and peer reviews to produce their final drafts.

Step 11: Have students return to the Inkheart Speak Your Mind activity in Flashlight Readers and print out their final drafts for final review by teacher.

Supporting All Learners

Benchmarks:

Language Arts Standards (4th Ed.)

• Prewriting: uses prewriting strategies to plan written work (e.g., uses graphic organizers, story maps, and webs; groups related ideas; takes notes; brainstorms ideas; organizes information according to type and purpose of writing)
• Evaluates own and others' writing (e.g., determines the best features of a piece of writing, determines how own writing achieves its purposes, asks for feedback, responds to classmates' writing)
• Uses strategies (e.g., adapts focus, organization, point of view; determines knowledge and interests of audience) to write for different audiences (e.g., self, peers, teachers, adults)

Lesson Extensions

• Have students visit the Flashlight Readers Book Bulletin Board to share the topic of their letter with others.
• Invite students to choose a school issue about which they have a strong opinion. Have them write a letter to the editor of your school newspaper using the skills they’ve gained and submit it for publication.
• Have them conduct an opinion poll about a school issue (i.e., cafeteria food, school rules, school activities, dress code, etc.) and then report their findings in articles for the school newspaper.
• Have students collate their printed pieces into the opinion section of a class newspaper.