Text Evidence for Beginners

Teaching reading comprehension strategies such as making inferences and finding text evidence to support answers for comprehension questions is a challenge – especially with beginning readers. The more scaffolded the approach, the quicker the reader will have success in finding text evidence and really, in any other skill, as well.

In order to support my beginning readers in finding text evidence, I searched high and low. I couldn’t find what I was looking for, but I could visualize exactly what my first grade readers needed and I was hopeful that it could support readers in many grades. I ended up creating a scaffolded pack that is basically Text Evidence 101.

 

So, in the ideal world, our readers will be enthusiastically expanding their critical thinking skills by citing text evidence left and right to support their answers to questions…

All in their own instructional and independent texts.

But…I teach in the real world.

And that’s why I made this pack.

It’s my goal for them to find text evidence in their own texts, BUT in my experience, they need scaffolding, guidance and repetition with something a bit more broken down and laid out.

This text evidence and inferencing resource was purposefully designed to break essential reading strategies into small parts and deliberately lead students to success and independence.  Designed with the gradual release of responsibility in mind, there are 5 differentiated levels so that you can meet each student right where they are in. You can build your readers’ independence with finding text evidence and making inferences by modeling what to do using the multiple scaffolded options.

 

You’ll find lesson ideas, teaching resources, anchor charts, printable practice activities, a parent letter, answer keys, and more! You also get both a printable and digital version of the activities which provides even more versatility when helping your readers learn to find text evidence.

 

I have used successfully used it in whole group, small group and one on one with many readers with wonderful success!

Though it can be used as a stand alone unit, my Finding Proof Text Evidence pack is a companion pack to two of my reading units that emphasize strong reading comprehension…

And this scaffolded pack to teach readers to self-monitor to make sure what they read matches the text. There are a variety of ways that beginning readers make mistakes while reading and this pack helps them understand how to solve these mistakes. Self-monitoring reading is so important!

You may have seen the following images on pinterest. Since these images were created, the whole pack has been updated for a more clean, streamlined look with additional content added. Make sure to open the preview and check out the reviews, too! 

Each page comes with an answer key.

This week I will be teaching with the mini-text passages…I began with #1 in Whole Group, working together to find evidence. I’ll use #2 in Small Group, providing feedback and coaching. Some groups will also have #3 in Small Group. I’ll try #4 as homework and then give #5 independently is a mini-assessment…

If you use it, I’d love to hear from you on how it’s going! I’m always, always, always open to feedback and suggestions. Feel free to reach out!