What it is. Notes mark which lines are the source's facts and which are its opinions.
Why our test works. Every source mixes the two, and a child whose notes do not separate them will later argue from an author's opinion believing it was a fact — the single most damaging thing that can happen between reading and writing. Checkability is the only test a thirteen-year-old can apply reliably, and it is the same distinction Grade 6 met as checkable-versus-judgeable, now applied to somebody else's writing.
Leans on. Grade 6 separated claim from support in an argument.
Watch for. Mark whose interpretation it is, not only that it is one. An unattributed I becomes the child's own opinion within a week.
Mark which lines are the source's facts and which are its opinions. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher outlines a passage and marks each line F or O, showing one line that looks factual The class reads Writing Book 7, p.51 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher outlines a passage and marks each line F or O, showing one line that looks factual but is not. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class labels three lines F or O and defends each. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 7 to page 51 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Outline a passage, marking every line F or O.
You close on the exit direction — Read a line you marked O. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: F is what could be checked. I is someone's judgment.
Mark whose interpretation it is, not only that it is one. An unattributed I becomes the child's own opinion within a week.