In expository writing, it is important to back up claims with evidence and details. Help your class to develop their writing with notes on different types of evidence. Once they have the basics down, practice with a sample thesis and...

Could you go without your cell phone for 48 hours? Pose this question to your class and then read the article provided here. Pupils mark the text and and complete a graphic organizer that requires the use of textual evidence.

What is an inference, and how can you use textual evidence to create one? Introduce your developing readers to the world of inferencing with this presentation. Terms are defined, and several examples are shown. The class works together...

You can claim that soda rots people's teeth or that dinosaurs were actually birds, but your claim will not stand up if it is not backed by evidence. A handout from UNC Writing Center, the seventh in the Writing the Paper series of 24,...

A cross-curricular instructional activity combines poetry and history for your middle and high schoolers. The class critically examines Kipling's poem, "White Man's Burden" as historical evidence of the Imperialist ideology popular...

By using explicit textual evidence, individuals can strongly support their ideas and opinions. The presentation suggests in order to use explicit textual evidence, one must state their idea, cite evidence in the text that led to the...

How many times have you marked down your learners' essays because they did not include textual evidence, or they did not cite their sources correctly? Put that red pen away and take out a instructional activity based on citing text from...

How is that relevant? Scholars gain an understanding of the words relevant and compelling. They then go back to the End of Unit 1 Assessment Prompt: Adversity in the Middle Ages and look at the second bullet that pertains to relevant and...

Enjoy the view. Scholars continue viewing a video of an opinion speech, this time identifying the supporting evidence the speaker employs. After watching, they work in small groups on their shared writing projects, crafting a body...

Young readers become experts at finding the central idea in informational text with an educational resource. The resource includes helpful tips to annotating close passages to succeed on the actual SAT exam, as well as strategies to make...

Pupils define hero and identify supporting evidence in a text. They complete a hero diagram worksheet and watch a video about a little boy from China who acts as a hero. Additionally, they complete the Ping Hero evidence worksheet and...

Should a criminal's punishment match the crime? An argumentative writing plan explores this question as class members investigate a variety of mixed-medium sources by experts in the field, form evidence-based claims, and support them...

Investigators use indirect evidence to guess what is occupying a sealed box. You could also use a set of plastic Easter eggs to encase the unknown items. Another terrific activity involves having students drop a pencil on a sheet of...

One important skill in analyzing scientific evidence is identifying facts versus opinions. Scholars identify pieces of evidence from the film The Day the Mesozoic Died and then discuss this evidence in small groups at the end of each act...

Anecdotes, analogies, testimonies, statistics. The most powerful arguments rely on multiple types of evidence. Scholars explore the topic as they read contrasting evidence about the benefits of video games. They complete Venn diagrams to...

Scholars dig deep into the text of W.E.B. Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk and analyze his position that black people must be aware of how they see themselves as well as how the world sees them. The instructor and readers work through the...

While much of prehistory is cloaked in mystery, ancient ancestors left evidence in DNA, languages, and materials from their time. Using photographs of items such as cave paintings and ancient tools, as well as maps of linguistic patterns...

Add another layer to the class's understanding. Scholars deepen their knowledge of the primary sources in their Japanese-American Internment during World War II packet and determine how the sources relate to the theme of invisibility....

Read, set, write! Scholars participate in the first fully independent writing task of the unit as they write about how Percy’s experience in The Lightning Thief aligns with The Hero’s Journey. To begin their writing, they complete a...

Mix and mingle. Scholars travel around the room to music stopping to meet with a classmate when the music stops. They answer questions about Flush at each stop. Learners then work together to identify the evidence they used to determine...

Welcome a new teacher (or two)! While most of the class works on the survival anchor chart, one pair begins the Salva/Nya chart and uses it to teach the class. Each day, scholars switch roles, giving every pair a chance to teach their...

Young poets view a model two-voice poem while discussing capitalization and punctuation. Pupils also complete an end-of-unit assessment about using strong evidence to support a literary analysis. 

Readers take a look at pages 40-45 in Promises to Keep and identify evidence to support Sharon Robinson's opinion about her father. They divide up the text and complete task cards before writing vocabulary from the story on index cards.