10 Strategies for Teaching Students to Provide Evidence Effectively

By Kimberly Headrick

1. Stress the importance of finding and using evidence

• Start at the beginning of the year• Show the difference between an unsupported

guess and an evidence-based idea• Discuss importance of providing solid

evidence to support an idea

2. Teach what strong evidence looks like

• Use text to model finding strong evidence• Provide 3-4 examples of evidence ranking

form weakest to strongest, then discuss the reasoning on each rating

• Have students find and rank their own examples

3. Provide texts to get students motivated

• Choose thought-provoking & interesting text• Choosing text? Develop a question and see if you

are able to find at least two answers with evidence– Yes? This text works– No? Keep looking

• Teach that sometimes one piece of evidence can support different answers

4. Scavenger Hunt

• Work in pairs to complete a specific task, such as “find a line that demonstrates x”

• Great for struggling students becauseA. More like a gameB. Have peer support

5. Use journals

• Practice looking for and providing evidence with journals

• Students write down quotes they find interesting while reading as well as WHY they find them interesting

• When asked about thoughts on a text, students have evidence to support their statement

6. Making Annotations

• Record their interactions with text using annotations

• Able to refer back to these notes as needed• Helps students discover sources they can use

to support their claim and build a case for their findings

6. Making Annotations cont’d• Examples of annotation marks to teach:

– Underlining major points– Stars/asterisks for important statements– Numbers in margins indicating sequence– Writing in the margins– Circling key words or phrases

• Tip: provide a cheat sheet of annotation marks to hang around the room, available to each group, or for individual folder to refer back to– yellow highlighter to highlight major points– pink highlighter to highlight key words or phrases– exclamation mark to notate something that surprised the reader– another symbol to emphasize a connection made to the text

7. Anchor Charts• For evidence-based discussions, provide discussion starters

– “____ happened because _______.”– “I think _______________. I found evidence on page _______ when the author stated _____.”

• Bookmarks with discussion starterswork also• Beneficial to students struggling to provide language for their responses, especially English Language Learners

8. Work in Pairs

• Work collaboratively to search for and explain evidence for an idea or to answer a question

• Beneficial to struggling learners; builds confidence

9. Reflection

• After discussion, have students reflect on the quality of evidence he/she provided the group

• Reflect as a class, group, or individually• Ask if students noticed any particularly

interesting or thought-provoking evidence• Allow students time to set a goal for the next

discussion

10. Practice

• After ample modeling and guided practice, give students time to practice finding evidence

• Allow for opportunities to express their evidence and support their ideas in various ways, such as through discussion, writing, illustrating, etc.

Bibliography• Cleaver, S. (2015) 8 creative ways to help kids find the evidence in nonfiction. Retrieved from

http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/01/13/8-creative-ways-to-help-kids-find-the-evidence-in-nonfiction

• Elliott, K. (2014, March 28). Chapter 1: Use of evidence [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2XMnmKH0wM&feature=youtu.be

• Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2013) A range of writing across the content areas. The Reading Teacher, 67(2), 96-101. doi:10.1002/TRTR.1200

• Fisher, D. & Frey. N. (2014) Close reading and writing from sources. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

• Finding evidence in texts. (2015) Retrieved from http://www.learner.org/workshops/hslit/session2/teaching/4ts.html

• Linder, R. (2013, January 11). Teaching students to use anchor standard #1: Textual evidence in the common core classroom. Retrieved from http://ontheweb.rozlinder.com/teaching-students-to-use-textual-evidence-in-the-common-core-classroom/

• Norris, D. (2013) Getting ready to write: citing textual evidence [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-about-textual-evidence

• Six strategies to help students cite and explain evidence. (2014, November 24). Retrieved from http://www.greatbooks.org/six-strategies-to-help-students-cite-and-explain-evidence/