Teacher Commentary

Since this is the first time for students to use a chart like this, I usually make a point of modeling how I fold the chart back to collect evidence only first (not to fill in the claims or source columns). Then later I show how I open the fold, look at the evidence, and make a claim based on the evidence. I do this so students will develop the habit of collecting evidence and basing claims on evidence they’ve collected rather than coming up with a claim and going back to the texts to cherry pick evidence.

I’ve tried numerous variations of notetakers to represent claims based on evidence and I have found that students tend to fill in boxes because they think a good chart is a full chart and they don’t carefully delineate what goes in the appropriate columns (i.e. they write claims in the evidence column). I’ve found collecting evidence first seems to work best. Eventually we do move toward students marking claims and evidence back and forth more fluidly when they have a clearer understanding of the difference between claims and evidence.