Text Evidence: A Lesson for Upper Elementary Students

Text Evidence... it's of huge importance in the upper elementary grades! After all, it's the first standard listed for Reading: Literature and Reading: Informational Text in grades 3, 4, and 5. For those of you who work with the Common Core standards, 4th and 5th grade students are expected to be able to answer text questions by pointing to a section of the text...

    1.)  that provides the exact answer

and 
2.) that helps them to infer an answer

I created the following lesson to use with upper elementary students. If you would like to replicate the lesson to use with your own students, click on the image below. You can download all of the printables shown in this blog post for free!

Part 1: Anchor Chart

Prior to the start of the lesson, assemble the top half of the anchor chart so that it is ready to go when class begins. (Do not include the questions or answers shown at the bottom of the anchor chart.)

To begin the lesson with students, point to the anchor chart title, and then discuss what the dot dude characters are thinking. Ask a student volunteer to read the paragraph aloud for the rest of the class. Tell students that two questions follow this text. Read the first question to the students and ask them whether it is a "right-here-in-the-text" question or an "infer-with-text-clues" question. Write the question on the correct side of the anchor chart, and then have students help you answer the question. Repeat the process with the second question.

Part 2: Introduce Sentence Starters 

After you complete the anchor chart, pass out the bookmark papers to your students, and tell them that the two types of questions require slightly different sentence starters. 

The set of five sentence starters on the left is useful when the answer is explicitly stated in the text. The set of five sentence starters displayed on the right is especially valuable when students must infer in order to determine the answer. 

Tell students to cut around the outside box and then fold it in half to create a two-sided bookmark. This bookmark can now be used as a reference tool throughout your text evidence unit, and throughout the school year.

Part 3: Practice with a Partner

For the final part of this large group lesson, have students work with a partner. To begin, tell them to quickly decide which of them is Partner A, and which is Partner B. Hand each group a dry-erase board, marker, and eraser. 
1.  Place "The Cobra" passage under your document camera and invite the groups to read it quietly

     to themselves. (I recommend covering the questions for now.)

2.  Tell students that for this passage, Partner A will write on the clipboard while Partner B will 

     handle the bookmarks. 
3.  Display Question #1.
4.  Tell partners to discuss whether it is a "right-there" question or a "stop-and-infer" question and 

     then answer the question.
5.  Partner A should write the answer on the whiteboard. (Students must use one of the sentence 

     starters from the bookmark, as well.)
6.  When all of the groups are done, have them display their answers. Partner A should hold up the 

     whiteboard, and Partner B should hold up the bookmark so that the question type that they

     identified is facing you.
7.  Display Question #2 and repeat steps 4-6.
8.  Display Question #3 and repeat steps 4-6.

When you have completed the first passage, place the second passage under the document camera and repeat the entire process outlined above. Instruct the partners to switch roles for this new passage. Partner B is now the writer while Partner A is in charge of handling the bookmarks.

TEXT EVIDENCE... MORE PRACTICE OPPORTUNITIES!

In case you are interested, I have created a number of Text Evidence teaching resources that are available in my TpT store. Just click on the images to take a closer look at them!

Thank you for stopping by!
~Deb

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5 comments 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, Freebie, reading, test prep