One of my biggest frustrations has been trying to get my students to answer questions and write in science. They seriously believe that they only write in english. Just like they think they should only do math is math class; physics will really mess with their minds! The problem isn’t that they can’t do it. The problem is that they have not been given the tools they need.
There are so many problems that we are dealing with! Think about any question you ask a student; the answer you get is rarely complete. The answer they give may not actually answer the question, it lacks support of evidence, or there is no content involved. Another problem I’ve run into is when I ask a short answer question; I’ve read answers that went on for 2 paragraphs and when I was done, I still wasn’t sure they had answered the question! Plus, how many of us have done this amazing lab or activity and the kids loved it. They nailed it, everything worked like a charm, and they could tell you what happened; however, they couldn’t connect it to the content in class. The connection is essential to making the lab support the learning and it can be so hard to make.
I’m not going to claim that having students write with Claim, Evidence, Reasoning is easy or magical or that it will solve all of your problems. In the beginning it is a lot of work! You are completely changing what your students are used to doing. It is going to take deliberate effort on your part. However, I will tell you it is worth it. This will provide your students with a very clear guide for answering all questions. It will work for lab conclusions, short answer questions and even essay questions. CER will work for all different level of learner and your ELL students. The best part is that this isn’t just for science content! Our English department uses a similar format for their work. That means the kids have seen it and they do have an idea of what to do; I just help them apply it to what we are doing in class.
What it is:
- Claim-statement that answers or responds to the question
- Evidence-any information that supports the response; can be data, graphs, text evidence, observations
- Reasoning-use of knowledge to explain why the evidence supports the claim; this is where content is connected to data and observations.
The simple, straight-forward set up makes it easy for students to understand and with practice; they start to do it without help. I have to tell them every single time I want the answer in the CER format, but I don’t have to show them what to do every time.
Here are a couple of tools I use in class.
I use this guide when I first introduce CER. We go through examples together and fill out the guide together. The example and the rubric and “help” page go in the reference section of their notebook, which I will share later. For the first 6 weeks, I include the Guide with any question or lab that uses CER; they don’t have to fill it out every time, but I make sure they have it. I also remind to reference their rubric and help page.
This is a scaffolding tool that you can use for any students that might need a little more direction. The order is different and the evidence is provided first. This is helpful for students that aren’t sure what the answer is or have a harder time making those connections. They can see the evidence and use that to form their answer. You could use this at the beginning of the year as the guide and slowly transition away from this to the other guide that has the claim first. There are 2 pages and that are the same; I made it that way because I print it off so 2 pages fit on 1 sheet and cut it in half. I use half the paper and they students still have plenty of room.
If you have any questions or need help getting started; contact me. If you currently use CER, what are some helpful tips you would share?
