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English lesson plan · 6th grade (Year 7 in England) · 30 minutes

Claims, reasons and evidence

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RI.6.8CCSS RI.7.8England: KS3 ReadingEngland: GCSE English Language Paper 2

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Claims, reasons and evidence.

  • I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
  • I can explain each step and say why it works.
  • I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: Fact and opinion

Leads to: Rhetoric and persuasive techniques; Thesis statements and supporting evidence; Parts of an argument: claim, reason, evidence, counterclaim, rebuttal

Materials: A short text or extract (one copy each), Highlighters, Question cards, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 4 min

  • Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Fact and opinion). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
  • Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.
  1. A: Football is boring to watch. B: A football team has eleven players on the pitch. Which sentence is a fact? (A / B) → BPrompt: What is the writer's main claim?
  2. A: Our school should have a longer lunch break. B: Our school lunch break lasts 45 minutes. Which sentence is an opinion? (A / B) → APrompt: What is the writer's main claim?
  3. A: Paris is the capital of France. B: Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. Which sentence is an opinion? (A / B) → BPrompt: What is the writer's main claim?

Hook · 3 min

  • Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
  • Share the objective: Claims, reasons and evidence. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 7 min

  • Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
  • Example: Our town needs a skate park. Young people have nowhere safe to skate, so they use car parks, which is dangerous. A skate park would keep them safe and give them a place to meet. What reason does the writer give?
  • Step 1: Arguments have a claim supported by reasons and evidence.
  • Step 2: So the answer is: Skaters currently use dangerous car parks.
  • Answer: Skaters currently use dangerous car parks.
  • Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 6 min

  • Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
  • Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.
  1. Schools should plant more trees. Trees provide shade on hot days, clean the air, and give pupils a calm place to read. A study in one city found that pupils with green views from their classrooms scored higher on attention tests. What is the writer's claim? (Cities have many schools. / Schools should plant more trees. / Trees provide shade. / Pupils like reading.) → Schools should plant more trees.Prompt: What is the writer's main claim?
  2. Our town needs a skate park. Young people have nowhere safe to skate, so they use car parks, which is dangerous. A skate park would keep them safe and give them a place to meet. What reason does the writer give? (Skaters currently use dangerous car parks. / Skate parks are cheap. / Skating is an Olympic sport. / Everyone in town skates.) → Skaters currently use dangerous car parks.Prompt: What is the writer's main claim?

You do: independent practice · 7 min

  • Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
  • Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 3 min

  • Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.
  1. Schools should plant more trees. Trees provide shade on hot days, clean the air, and give pupils a calm place to read. A study in one city found that pupils with green views from their classrooms scored higher on attention tests. What is the writer's claim? (Pupils like reading. / Cities have many schools. / Trees provide shade. / Schools should plant more trees.) → Schools should plant more trees.Prompt: What is the writer's main claim?
  2. Some people say video games waste time. But many games require planning, teamwork and quick decisions. Of course, playing for too long can harm sleep, so limits are sensible. Which sentence is a counterclaim? (Many games require planning. / Games need quick decisions. / Some people say video games waste time. / Limits are sensible.) → Some people say video games waste time.Prompt: What is the writer's main claim?

Watch out for

  • Answering from memory or opinion instead of evidence in the text.
  • Copying a long quote without explaining what it shows.

Support and stretch

Support

  • Review first: Fact and opinion.
  • Use concrete materials: a short text or extract (one copy each).
  • Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
  • Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

  • Move on to: Rhetoric and persuasive techniques; Thesis statements and supporting evidence; Parts of an argument: claim, reason, evidence, counterclaim, rebuttal.
  • Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
  • Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-6.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

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Claims, reasons and evidence

Name

Date

Score/ 6

Speech: Our Beach, Our Responsibility

Good morning, everyone. Last Saturday, twenty-three pupils from this school spent three hours on Sandy Bay beach. We collected forty-one bags of rubbish. Forty-one. Bottles, crisp packets, fishing line, a shoe, and – I promise you this is true – an entire garden chair. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. "It's not my rubbish. Why should I pick it up?" And you're right: most of us didn't drop it. But here's the thing. The seal pup that gets tangled in that fishing line doesn't care whose fault it was. The toddler who cuts her foot on broken glass doesn't care either. That beach belongs to all of us. We swim there in summer. We walk our dogs there in winter. Some of us learned to ride our bikes on the promenade. If it belongs to all of us, then looking after it belongs to all of us too. So I'm asking you for just one thing. Not money. Not your whole weekend. Just two hours, on the first Saturday of next month. Bring gloves, bring a friend, bring your little brother if you have to. Because if twenty-three of us can fill forty-one bags, imagine what four hundred of us could do. Thank you.

  1. Question 1

    Read "Speech: Our Beach, Our Responsibility". Which persuasive technique is used in paragraph 3?

    • A. appealing to shared experiences and belonging
    • B. quoting an expert
    • C. making a joke about the audience
    • D. using scientific data

A Letter to the Council

Dear Councillors, I am writing to ask you not to close Elm Street Library. I am nine years old, and the library is one of the most important places in our town. First, the library helps children learn. Every Saturday, there is a story club where younger children listen to stories and older children like me read aloud. Many families cannot afford to buy lots of books, but at the library everyone can borrow them for free. Second, the library is not just for children. My neighbour, Mr Haddad, goes there every week to use the computers because he does not have one at home. He uses them to apply for jobs and to talk to his grandchildren in another country. Some people say that everything is online now, so we do not need libraries. However, not everyone has the internet at home, and a website cannot give you a quiet, warm place to study or a librarian who helps you find exactly the right book. Please keep our library open. It belongs to all of us. Yours faithfully, Priya Shah

  1. Question 2

    Read "A Letter to the Council". In paragraph 5, what does Priya do?

    • A. She answers an argument against libraries.
    • B. She lists the opening times.
    • C. She agrees that libraries are not needed.
    • D. She tells a funny story.

Should Primary Schools Ban Homework?

Every evening, in homes across the country, the same battle takes place: tired children, frustrated parents and a worksheet that nobody wants to finish. It is time for primary schools to ban homework. The most important reason is that, for young children, the evidence for homework is weak. Several large reviews of research have found that homework has little measurable effect on the test results of pupils under eleven. Older students may benefit, but for younger children, the hours spent on worksheets do not seem to pay off. Second, children need time to play, rest and be with their families. Play is not a waste of time; it builds creativity, problem-solving and friendships. A child who has spent six hours concentrating at school deserves an evening to explore, read for pleasure or simply be bored – which is when imagination often kicks in. Some people argue that homework teaches responsibility. This is a fair point. However, children can learn responsibility in many other ways: feeding a pet, helping to cook dinner or practising an instrument they have chosen themselves. Finally, homework can be unfair. Some children have parents who can help them every night and a quiet desk to work at. Others share a small space with siblings or have parents who work late. Homework can widen the gap between these children instead of closing it. Schools should replace homework with something simple: read every day, for fun. That is one habit worth taking home.

  1. Question 3

    Read "Should Primary Schools Ban Homework?". How does the writer deal with the idea that homework teaches responsibility?

    • A. ignores it completely
    • B. agrees and changes their mind
    • C. says it is a lie
    • D. admits it is fair, then suggests other ways to learn responsibility

Speech: Our Beach, Our Responsibility

Good morning, everyone. Last Saturday, twenty-three pupils from this school spent three hours on Sandy Bay beach. We collected forty-one bags of rubbish. Forty-one. Bottles, crisp packets, fishing line, a shoe, and – I promise you this is true – an entire garden chair. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. "It's not my rubbish. Why should I pick it up?" And you're right: most of us didn't drop it. But here's the thing. The seal pup that gets tangled in that fishing line doesn't care whose fault it was. The toddler who cuts her foot on broken glass doesn't care either. That beach belongs to all of us. We swim there in summer. We walk our dogs there in winter. Some of us learned to ride our bikes on the promenade. If it belongs to all of us, then looking after it belongs to all of us too. So I'm asking you for just one thing. Not money. Not your whole weekend. Just two hours, on the first Saturday of next month. Bring gloves, bring a friend, bring your little brother if you have to. Because if twenty-three of us can fill forty-one bags, imagine what four hundred of us could do. Thank you.

  1. Question 4

    Read "Speech: Our Beach, Our Responsibility". What is the speaker asking the audience to do?

    • A. stop going to the beach
    • B. give money to a charity
    • C. write to the council
    • D. join a beach clean-up next month

The Long Wall

The Great Wall of China is not one wall at all. It is a network of walls, trenches and watchtowers built and rebuilt over more than two thousand years by different dynasties. If all its sections were laid end to end, they would stretch over 21,000 kilometres – more than half the distance around the Earth. The earliest walls were built from packed earth around the seventh century BCE, when rival Chinese states defended their borders from one another. In about 220 BCE, the first emperor of a united China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered many of these separate walls to be joined together to protect the north from raiding groups. The sections that most visitors see today are far younger. They were built during the Ming dynasty, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ming builders used bricks and stone, which is why these sections have survived so well. Watchtowers were placed close enough together for soldiers to send signals using smoke by day and fire by night. The wall came at a terrible cost. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, prisoners and farmers were forced to work on it, often in freezing mountains or burning deserts. Many died, and stories and songs about their suffering are still told. Did the wall work? Historians disagree. It slowed down small raids and helped control trade and travel, but determined armies could still break through or simply go around it. Today, its greatest power may be as a symbol – of human effort, of history and of a nation's identity.

  1. Question 5

    Read "The Long Wall". According to the final paragraph, what do historians disagree about?

    • A. whether tourists should visit
    • B. whether the wall was effective
    • C. who built the first section
    • D. how long the wall is

Should Primary Schools Ban Homework?

Every evening, in homes across the country, the same battle takes place: tired children, frustrated parents and a worksheet that nobody wants to finish. It is time for primary schools to ban homework. The most important reason is that, for young children, the evidence for homework is weak. Several large reviews of research have found that homework has little measurable effect on the test results of pupils under eleven. Older students may benefit, but for younger children, the hours spent on worksheets do not seem to pay off. Second, children need time to play, rest and be with their families. Play is not a waste of time; it builds creativity, problem-solving and friendships. A child who has spent six hours concentrating at school deserves an evening to explore, read for pleasure or simply be bored – which is when imagination often kicks in. Some people argue that homework teaches responsibility. This is a fair point. However, children can learn responsibility in many other ways: feeding a pet, helping to cook dinner or practising an instrument they have chosen themselves. Finally, homework can be unfair. Some children have parents who can help them every night and a quiet desk to work at. Others share a small space with siblings or have parents who work late. Homework can widen the gap between these children instead of closing it. Schools should replace homework with something simple: read every day, for fun. That is one habit worth taking home.

  1. Question 6

    Read "Should Primary Schools Ban Homework?". What is the writer's main claim?

    • A. Older students benefit from homework.
    • B. Homework teaches responsibility.
    • C. Children should read for fun.
    • D. Primary schools should ban homework.

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Answer key: Claims, reasons and evidence

  1. 1. A. appealing to shared experiences and belonging

  2. 2. A. She answers an argument against libraries.

  3. 3. D. admits it is fair, then suggests other ways to learn responsibility

  4. 4. D. join a beach clean-up next month

  5. 5. B. whether the wall was effective

  6. 6. D. Primary schools should ban homework.