Finding Evidence in the Text
Materials:
Finding evidence in the text is an essential lesson for students in Grades 6-8. This will help them think critically and write more effective and convincing pieces as they move on to secondary school.
This lesson is meant to be completed during or after a class novel study. You can also make this shorter by giving your students a short passage or current-events article. All of the options are equally as effective!
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Teacher Prep:
Read the novel or article your class is using and come up with specific prompts that they could find evidence for. For example:
- The main theme of this novel is ___
- The key idea of this article is ___
- The main character demonstrated [insert character trait here]
- The main conflict in the novel is __
- [Insert Character] experienced a transformation from __ to __.
Write each of those prompts on a separate Post-it® Super Sticky Mini Easel Pad paper and put them up around the room.
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Lesson:
Have students take out the passage/article/novel you are using for the lesson. Give each student a few Post-it® Super Sticky Notes.
Explain that the students will be searching through the text to find a quote that proves each of the statements hung up around the classroom. For example, if the statement is that the theme of the book is courage, students would be looking for a direct quote or specific event in the book that proves that argument.
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Once they have written down a piece of evidence, they can get up from their seat and place it on the Post-it® Super Sticky Mini Easel Pad paper that it goes with.
When the students have had a chance to get their ideas down, take up the evidence with the class. You can read the Post-it® Super Sticky Notes as a class and sort them based on similar/different ideas. Your next lesson could be practicing this again with a different text form to help them build these important skills!
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Lastly before you take any of the papers down, use the Post-it® App to take photos of the work. Export as a PNG and upload to your digital learning platform for students to reference back to throughout the unit.
