Three-Step Approach to Citing Text Evidence | Small Group Engagement
It’s no secret that citing text evidence is an important skill in elementary classrooms. I always tell my students that school is filled with times where you will be asked to prove that you understand what you read. This is easier for kids who have strengthened their metacognitive skills throughout their school years, and they remember everything they read after a passage or article is over. For students who are still building these comprehension skills, the idea of going back into the passage and finding the answer is nothing short of tortuous.
I know you’ve lived this: you read an entire article with a child, and then you get to the questions, and they almost have to re-read the entire passage to find the answer.
Maybe we could sit here and argue that the task of reading and citing text evidence is not developmentally appropriate for these kiddos who haven’t solidified their reading fluency and comprehension. Would we be correct? Heck. To. The. Yes. Does that change the fact that they will need to pull answers from a grade-level text at the end of the year? Nope.
So, we do what we can, and we help the kids cope. I’ve found a simplified, three-step system is easy for kids to remember, and walks them through the process of answering text questions without frustration.
Step 1: Read the text completely. Stop and jot down a one or two word summary of each paragraph as you go.
Step 2: Read the first question. Go back and look at the paragraphs and decide where your answer may be.
Step 3: Highlight the evidence of your answer, and re-write it in your own words.
That’s it, guys. It’s not fancy. It’s simple. But it gives the kids a process to follow that won’t overwhelm either of you, and helps them deepen that metacognitive approach to reading.
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