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Read Chapter 10: “My Brooklyn Grandmother” – Chapter 11: “Seeds” and Afterword; Complete Student Packet Worksheets for Chapter 10: “My Brooklyn Grandmother” – Chapter 11: “Seeds” and Afterword

I will review a film I recently saw with an explicit opinion. For example, tell students, “I recently watched the movie UP, which I thought was a wonderful film. It was full of exciting, beautiful animations, funny story lines, and had a great ending.” Then, I will review a different film I saw using only facts, but implying my opinion. For example, tell students, “I saw the movie Transformers, which had violence and was darker in color than UP. “ Then, I will ask the class to tell me my opinion about the two films.

will explain that though autobiographies are the factual account of a person’s life, they also include the author’s opinion about the people, places, and events around them. I will define opinion as a person’s personal belief or judgment about a subject. Opinions can only be verified or supported by the person who has the opinion.

I will explain that sometimes the author gives an explicit, or stated, opinion, like the way I spoke about the movie, UP. Stated (explicit) opinions are easy for readers to identify because the author states his feelings or thoughts about a subject. Authors might use language such as “I like,” “I believe,” “I thought,” or they might describe something that shows their personal belief or preference. For example, “I thought that movie was wonderful,” is a good example of a stated (explicit) opinion because not only do I say what “I thought,” but I also describe it in a way that someone else might disagree. It is not a verifiable fact. Other times, a reader has to figure out the author’s opinion because it’s not explicitly stated. These are called implicit or unstated opinions. Readers have to infer the author’s opinion based on the facts and details in the story, just like you did with my review of the second movie, Transformers. I told you that the film had violence and was dark, which are facts, but you could infer how I felt.

I will create a T-Chart on chart paper or the board to identify the two kinds of opinions about topics in Chapter 9: “Culture Shock” of The Lost Garden. Note: See Stated and Unstated Opinions Chart 1 for sample responses.

First, I want to know what the author’s opinion is about Milwaukee. I will record my question on the Stated and Unstated Opinions Chart 1. I will skim Chapter 9 to see if the author states his opinion about Milwaukee. I see that the bottom of page 96, the author states his explicit opinion about Milwaukee: “I found it sometimes to be a bit surrealistic.” I will record this information under the “Stated (Explicit) Opinion” column.

Next, I will look for facts and descriptive language to infer the author’s unstated or implicit opinion about this topic. I will draw a conclusion and record it under the “Unstated (Implicit) Opinion” column on the Stated and Unstated Opinions Chart 1. I will infer the author’s opinion. I will look at the facts, people, places, and events the author used in the story and the words the author uses to describe those facts in order to draw a conclusion about the author’s opinion. For example, I can infer that the author disliked his college because the author uses words such as “groused” and “ugly,” on page 99 and “Milwaukee and Marquette were both stuck a decade behind the rest of the country,” on page 100. I can also infer that he didn’t like his college because he felt it was racist, because he included the fact that there were less than 100 students who were non-white and he included the facts about the demonstration he participated in. The words the author used to describe these things helped me infer his opinion—he disliked where he went to college. I will continue modeling finding stated (explicit) and unstated (implicit opinions) in Chapter 9: “Culture Shock,” by answering the remaining questions on the Stated and Unstated Opinions Chart 1.

Ask: "How can I identify an author’s stated (explicit) and unstated (implicit) opinions in an autobiography?" Students should answer that they can look for explicitly stated opinions in a text by looking for words that describe what the author feels or thinks about a topic. An unstated (implicit) opinion can be inferred by the events and words the author chooses to include in a story.

will create a T-Chart on chart paper or the board to identify the two kinds of opinions about topics in Chapter 10: “My Brooklyn Grandmother.” Note: See Stated and Unstated Opinions Chart 2 for sample responses. We will read the chapter aloud and record the stated opinions under the “Stated (Explicit) Opinion” Column on our Stated and Unstated Opinions Chart 2. For example, on the bottom of page 107, the author states his grandmother was “a great cook.” Also, on the top of page 109, the author states his opinion about instant rice, which he says, “tastes mushy to me” and brown rice, which he says, “tastes musty.” These are the author’s explicit opinions. These aren’t facts that can be verified, but rather are opinions of the writer.

After we have recorded the stated (explicit) opinions and have read the chapter, we will think about the author’s unstated (implicit) opinions. For example, we can infer that the author loves his grandmother. By looking at the words he uses to describe his grandmother, such as, “I never told her how much she meant to me,” (p. 109) and the steps he took to bring his grandmother food while she was in the hospital shows his loving opinion of her. We can also infer that the author respected his grandmother because when she heaped his plate with food he “dutifully make my way though the pile of food.” If he didn’t respect her, he would have taken a different action. We will continue answering the opinion questions on the Stated and Unstated Opinions Chart 2, identifying either stated or unstated (implicit or explicit) opinions to help us determine the answer.

will complete the Stated and Unstated Opinions Worksheet in your Student Packet by answering four opinion questions about Chapter 11 with evidence from the text. (See page 19 in the Student Packet.)

will come together to discuss the stated (explicit) and unstated (implicit) opinions we have found in Chapter 11. We will informally discuss the questions: Why is it necessary for an author to include his or her opinion in their autobiography? Why is it important for a reader to infer the author’s opinion on certain facts or ideas in the text?