In this activity, students will be provided a question or prompt to answer using evidence from the text. The prompt here is: “How is the article both entertaining and informative?”
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Student Instructions
Create a storyboard to plan your answer to the prompt using at least three examples.
Group similar examples together to help students see patterns in how the text entertains and informs. Use colored sticky notes or digital sorting tools to make this activity interactive and visual, so students can compare and contrast ideas easily.
Show students how to begin their answers with phrases like, "According to the text..." or "The author states..." Demonstrating these starters helps students anchor their responses in the text and builds academic language skills.
Pair up students so they can check each other's storyboards for clear evidence and accurate paraphrasing. Peer review allows students to learn from one another and strengthens their ability to use text evidence effectively.
Invite students to draw simple pictures that represent each piece of evidence they select. Visuals help make abstract ideas concrete and support comprehension for all learners, especially visual thinkers.
Create a class anchor chart listing ways to find and use text evidence. Refer to this chart during lessons so students have ongoing support as they answer questions using proof from the text.
A text evidence activity for 4th and 5th graders is an exercise where students answer a question or prompt using specific examples or quotes from a reading passage to support their ideas, helping them build reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.
Students can use text evidence by selecting passages that are funny or imaginative (entertaining) and passages that explain facts or concepts (informative), then explaining how each supports the prompt about the article's dual purpose.
Entertaining examples include lines like “Is your cornea super strong? No!” and “Playing Today at a Theater in Your Eye: Explorer magazine!”. Informative examples are “As light passes through the cornea, it slows down. That makes the light change direction, or bend.” and “The image is upside down. Luckily, your brain flips the image right side up.”
A storyboard in a text evidence lesson is a planning tool where students organize their ideas and supporting examples visually, using boxes or frames to map out quotes, paraphrases, and matching illustrations for each piece of evidence.
Encourage students to paraphrase by putting the author’s ideas in their own words, or quote by copying exact phrases with quotation marks, making sure each example clearly supports their answer to the prompt.