Here are some facts about texting: according to the Pew Research Center, about 88% of teens with cell phones text, and half of them send 50 or more texts a day—or 1,500 texts a month. Is this too much texting? The answer you get depends on whom you ask. Parents usually say yes; teens usually say no. Both sides can use the same fact (1,500 texts a month) to form totally different opinions. Sending 1,500 texts can seem like too much to some people, but acceptable to others.

This video shows teens talking about what they would do if there were no such thing as texting. As you watch, think about what you would do if you could not text your friends and family.

Click "View" on the left to watch the video.

In this lesson, you will join in this texting debate, and use facts to form and support your own opinion. The lesson will use facts from the Pew Research Center study.

Goals
Here are the big ideas you will learn about in this lesson:

• Debate helps you decide which of two different opinions is true.
• You need facts to support an opinion in a debate.
• Interpreting facts is an important part of forming an opinion.

Strategies
You will be using many reading and writing strategies to complete this lesson. The key strategies that you will focus on are:

• Identifying and using text features
• Comparing and contrasting information
• Determining important information
• Understanding fact and opinion
• Making inferences

• opinion
• persuade

In this video, a teenager named Summayyah, who is preparing to narrate a video on texting, talks about her own texting habits. She wonders if she is a “textaholic”—someone who can’t stop, or is addicted to, texting. (“Textaholic” is based on the word "alcoholic," someone who is addicted to alcohol.) Her mother argues that Summayyah must be addicted because she texts constantly, even in the middle of the night. Summayyah claims that she can easily stop texting any time she feels like it. As you watch, think about how their opinions differ on how important texting is.

Click "View" on the left to watch the video. After watching the video, answer the question below.

Describe how Summayyah’s opinion on her texting differs from her mother’s opinion.

Many parents worry about their teens' texting. They worry that they text too much, skip homework to text, or get bullied through texting. As a result, many parents take action. According to the Pew Research Center study, many parents limit how many texts a teen can send and receive. And many parents—more than 60%—say they read their teens’ texts.

This has caused a debate between teens and parents about texting. Teens say texts are private, and that parents should not read them. Almost half of teens say they discuss personal matters in their texts, which they do not want parents to see.

Is it okay for parents to limit texting, or to read texts? Click "View" on the left to see some results from a study about how parents try to control their children's cell phone use.

Many teens and parents argue with each other about texting. Perhaps you have had these arguments yourself. But how do you convince someone that your opinion is right? The best way is to use facts to support your view.

For example, parents say texting makes teens unable to have a face-to-face conversation. You may disagree, but that’s just your opinion—unless you have facts to back it up. The graph on this page shows that even though texting is increasing, the number of face-to-face conversations has stayed about the same.

What is your opinion about texting? What information in the graph supports your opinion? Write two to three sentences to explain your answer.

In this lesson, you have explored the debate between teens and their parents over texting. Now you will read some facts about problems teens have with texting, and think about which side these facts support—whether parents should read their teens’ texts.

Click "View" on the left to open the reading passage.

List all of the facts that have been presented about this texting debate.

The videos you watched and the text you read showed how teens and parents feel about texting.

Now, show what you have learned so far about the texting debate by answering these three questions. Be sure to save all your answers before you go to the next screen.

You will now check your understanding of the vocabulary words for this lesson by placing them in sentences. Click "View" on the left to begin the activity.

Before moving to the next screen, choose two words from the vocabulary list and write a new sentence for each word.

Vocabulary words: debate, interpret, opinion, persuade

As the videos and the reading passage have shown, it is important to interpret and use facts to form your opinion in a debate. In this activity, you will categorize facts from the Pew study that you believe support one opinion or another in answer to the question: Do parents need to read their teen's texts?

Click "View" on the left to begin the activity. Your teacher will review the answers with you.

Then, before moving on to the final assignment, you may want to watch this lesson's videos again or reread the passage.

Can You Live Without Texting?

Video: 0m 29s

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Textaholic

Video: 1m 54s

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Interpreting Facts

Document

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In this lesson, you have learned about texting and how to interpret facts to form an opinion. You will now write an essay that demonstrates what you have learned.

Begin by reviewing your notes. Click "review my work" above and view or print out the screen that pops up.

Final Assignment Instructions

• Click Fact and Opinion: Parents, Teens, and Texting—Final Assignment (PDF).
• Choose one of the topics in the PDF and write an essay.
• Organize your response so that it includes at least three supporting details that you have learned from the reading passage, videos, and other materials in this lesson.
• Use at least three vocabulary words (or a form of the words) as part of your supporting details. For example, for the word jump, you could use jumps, jumped, or jumping.

If you would like to watch the entire film "Textaholic," click "View" on the left.