For Reading Informational Standard 8, Essay Writing, and Part B Questions
Are your students struggling with choosing the best evidence to support their points or answers?
It may be because we are teaching it backwards.
You know how when we write a paragraph the topic sentence goes first and then we state the evidence that supports it?
Or in Part A/Part B questions, the supporting evidence is usually the Part B.
This may inadvertently teach students to determine the point first and then search the text for evidence to support it.
Try this instead:
Examples from If You Take Away the Otter by Susannah Buhrman-Deever
1. Start with the evidence. My husband is in law enforcement, so I would tell my students that when he is investigating a case, he has to gather all the evidence first, before the judge can determine whether or not the suspect is innocent or guilty. Students have to comprehend the text before they can state the author’s main points (Reading Informational Standard 8.) When teaching this concept, hand out sentence strips with sentences from the text that they’ve already read. Have students read the excerpted sentences and discuss them with their group.
2. Then have students write the author’s main idea on a blank sentence strip. This requires comprehension and summarization, not to mention speaking and listening skills as they come to a consensus. For older students, they may need to sort the evidence into groups, and then write multiple main ideas, one for each point the author is making.
3. Have students rank the evidence. Students put the main idea at the top of the list, then work together to put the pieces of evidence in order, from strongest evidence to weakest evidence. This is the meat of the lesson, and where meaningful discussion takes place. There may be multiple correct ways to do it, the justification and thinking behind it is the point. Have groups compare to see if they got the same orders. Have them discuss why if not.
Model how this applies to their writing or when answering questions. When writing, have students gather evidence before they determine what to say in each paragraph.
You could even take it one step further and have students determine which pieces of evidence would be most effective for certain audiences.
For example, if we read an article about the negative effects of social media, which evidence would be most impactful for parents? Principals? Kids?
It’s so important that we teach students to analyze the evidence used by authors, while teaching them how to use evidence themselves.
This is a life skill every human needs.
Try out this strategy and let me know how it goes!
See the entire series on writing:
These resources are for opinion/argument writing and informative/explanatory writing, geared for grades 3-8.
- The Writing Process Explained in Memes
- 5 Types of Writing on the Mississippi State Test
- ChatGPT? Might as Well
- 18 Hook Ideas with Mentor Text
- Writing Introductory Paragraphs
- Writing Body Paragraphs
- Choosing the Best Evidence
- Revising
- Writing Conclusions
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