At the beginning of the school year, I
wrote a blog post concerning the Common Core
State Standards' focus on supporting ideas with evidence. That
post stayed on mind as I worked in K-5 classrooms the past nine months
and I found myself paying close attention to the way students develop
the ability to use textual evidence to support their interpretations
of texts.
I've always had a general sense of how
students develop this skill, but this year I made a conscious effort
to notice the following:
- What I was doing to facilitate the use of evidence in my courses and demonstration lessons
- How experienced Shared Inquiry™ leaders develop their students’ ability to use evidence
- How students were using sufficient and relevant evidence in their written responses to interpretative questions about a text
The following chart illustrates the types of questions teachers can use to promote students' effective use of evidence.
Student Skills Improved | Teacher Questions to Scaffold |
Clearly articulate an idea about text. |
|
Recognize when ideas come from the text and when ideas come from outside the text. |
|
Identify the approximate place in the text where the idea originated. |
|
Cite specific quotes from the text to support an idea. |
|
Articulate the connection between relevant evidence and interpretation. |
|
Explain
the logic of their evidence.
|
|
Weigh the evidence for alternate interpretations. |
|
Write
a well-supported argument for a particular interpretation
|
Linda Barrett is a Senior Training
Consultant for the Great Books Foundation. She has a master's in education from Rutgers University, and a BA in geography and
sociology from the the University of Leeds (UK). The training and
classroom coaching she conducts in the Shared Inquiry method of
learning provides teachers and students with support in
recognizing and using “sufficient and relevant evidence.”
This article was very helpful and clear. I have worked for Great Books for years and still learn from our teachers and trainers. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteTom