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Evidence Evaluation Lab

Informative Writing: Drafting with Evidence

Day 61of 180
Week 13of 36
30Minutes
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🖨️ Download Worksheet (PDF)
🎯 What You'll Learn

Learning Objectives

1

Evaluate and select the most relevant research evidence

2

Organize research notes by subtopic

3

Understand how to support a thesis with strong facts

📖 Scripture Connection

Proverbs 15:14

“The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.”

— Proverbs 15:14 (WEB)

Just as we carefully select the best information for our writing, we should also carefully seek wisdom and knowledge from reliable sources.

📦 Materials Needed

  • Research notes
  • Color-coded highlighters
  • Sorting folders or large poster board
  • Pencils
  • Research topic worksheet
📚 Step-by-Step

Lesson Plan

1Opening (5 min)

Gather students and explain the importance of choosing strong evidence for informative writing. Demonstrate how detectives and scientists carefully select the most important clues or data.

💭 Review Question: What makes a piece of evidence strong or weak?
2Teaching (10 min)

Teach students how to evaluate research notes by looking for relevance, credibility, and connection to their main thesis.

📌 Key Talking Points:
  • Look for specific details that directly support your main point
  • Check that sources are trustworthy
  • Identify the most compelling examples or quotes
💬 Discussion Questions:
  • How can you tell if a piece of information is truly helpful?
  • Why is it important to be selective about evidence?
3Activity: Evidence Sorting Lab (10 min)
hands-on

Students will sort their research notes into categories of 'Strong Evidence', 'Possible Evidence', and 'Not Useful'.

📝 Instructions:
  1. Spread out all research notes
  2. Use different color highlighters to mark evidence strength
  3. Create three columns on poster board or sorting sheet
  4. Categorize each piece of information
  5. Circle the top 3-5 pieces of strongest evidence
🔄 Variations:

Simpler: Provide pre-sorted example to help guide sorting

Challenge: Require students to explain why each piece of evidence was categorized

4Closing (5 min)

Discuss how carefully selecting evidence is like building a strong foundation for a house of knowledge.

📝 Review Questions:
  • What made some evidence stronger than others?
  • How does choosing good evidence help your writing?
🙏 Prayer:

Dear God, thank you for giving us wisdom to seek knowledge and understand the world around us. Help us to be careful and thoughtful in our learning.

Coming up: Tomorrow we'll learn how to use special vocabulary in our informative writing

💎 Memory Verse

Proverbs 15:14

“The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.”

— Proverbs 15:14 (WEB)

🎯 Activity: Memory Chain: Students pass a ball and each adds one word to the verse

👨‍👩‍👧 For Parents

Teaching Notes

📚 Background:

Students are learning critical thinking skills in research and writing

💡 Teaching Tips:
  • Encourage curiosity about research topics
  • Help children understand the difference between strong and weak evidence
  • Discuss real-world examples of evidence evaluation
🤔 Common Struggles:

Children may have difficulty distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant information

👀 Signs of Understanding:

Ability to categorize and explain why certain evidence is more useful

🚀 Want More?

Extension Activities

  • Create a research evidence scavenger hunt
  • Practice evaluating evidence in different subjects
  • Interview a local expert about how they use evidence in their work

Ready for Tomorrow?

Great job completing today's lesson!

Continue to Day 62 →Back to Language Arts