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English lesson plan · 6th grade (Year 7 in England) · 60 minutes

Citing textual evidence

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RL.6.1CCSS RI.6.1England: KS3 ReadingEngland: GCSE English Language (evidence)

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Citing textual 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: Finding and retrieving information; Making inferences

Leads to: Close reading for explicit meaning; Choosing the detail that best supports a point; Using an ellipsis to shorten a quotation

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 · 6 min

  • Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Finding and retrieving information; Making inferences). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
  • Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.
  1. The school fair raised $460. The money will buy new books for the library and a bench for the playground. What will the money buy? (football kits / a new school bus / books and a bench / computers) → books and a benchPrompt: Find the part of the text that talks about this.
  2. Hedgehogs are covered in about 5,000 spines. When they are scared, they curl into a tight ball so that only the spines show. What do hedgehogs do when they are scared? (curl into a ball / dig a hole / run up a tree / make a loud noise) → curl into a ballPrompt: Find the part of the text that talks about this.
  3. Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level. It is in the Himalayas, on the border between Nepal and China. Which mountain range is Mount Everest in? (the Alps / the Himalayas / the Rockies / the Andes) → the HimalayasPrompt: Find the part of the text that talks about this.

Hook · 6 min

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

I do: model it · 12 min

  • Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
  • Example: Claim: The village depended on the river. A: "The river was wide." B: "Villagers drank from it, fished in it and watered their crops with it." C: "A bridge crossed the river." D: "The river froze one winter." Which sentence best supports the claim?
  • Step 1: The best evidence directly supports the claim.
  • Step 2: So the answer is: B
  • Answer: B
  • Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 12 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. Claim: The village depended on the river. A: "The river was wide." B: "Villagers drank from it, fished in it and watered their crops with it." C: "A bridge crossed the river." D: "The river froze one winter." Which sentence best supports the claim? (A / B / C / D) → BPrompt: First decide what the answer to the question is.
  2. Claim: The new park has been popular. A: "The park opened in May." B: "The park has a pond." C: "Over 2,000 people visited in the first week." D: "The park was designed by a local artist." Which sentence best supports the claim? (A / B / C / D) → CPrompt: First decide what the answer to the question is.

You do: independent practice · 17 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 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 7 min

  • Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.
  1. Claim: The village depended on the river. A: "The river was wide." B: "Villagers drank from it, fished in it and watered their crops with it." C: "A bridge crossed the river." D: "The river froze one winter." Which sentence best supports the claim? (A / B / C / D) → BPrompt: First decide what the answer to the question is.
  2. Claim: Ella is determined. A: "Ella has two brothers." B: "Ella likes pasta." C: "Ella lives near the sea." D: "Ella practised the piece every evening until she could play it without a mistake." Which sentence best supports the claim? (A / B / C / D) → DPrompt: First decide what the answer to the question is.

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: Finding and retrieving information.
  • 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: Close reading for explicit meaning; Choosing the detail that best supports a point; Using an ellipsis to shorten a quotation.
  • 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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Citing textual evidence

Name

Date

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The Clever Octopus

If you wanted to design an intelligent animal from scratch, you probably would not start with a creature that has no bones, three hearts and blue blood. Yet the octopus is one of the most remarkable problem-solvers in the animal kingdom. In laboratories, octopuses have learned to unscrew jar lids to reach crabs inside. Some have escaped from their tanks at night, crept across the floor to a neighbouring tank to eat the fish, and then returned home before morning. In the wild, veined octopuses have been filmed collecting coconut shells, carrying them across the seabed and assembling them into a portable shelter – one of the few known examples of tool use by an invertebrate. What makes this intelligence so surprising is how different the octopus brain is from ours. About two-thirds of its roughly 500 million nerve cells are not in its head at all but in its eight arms. Each arm can taste, touch and even make simple decisions on its own. Scientists are still debating what it might feel like to be an animal whose thinking is spread throughout its body. The octopus's cleverness may be linked to its lifestyle. Without a shell for protection, it must outwit predators by hiding, changing colour in a fraction of a second, or squeezing through gaps no bigger than its beak. Survival depends on flexible thinking. Strangely, most octopuses live only one or two years. They have no parents to teach them and usually die soon after laying eggs. Every skill they show, they must largely work out for themselves.

  1. Question 1

    Read "The Clever Octopus". Which detail best supports the idea that octopuses use tools?

    • A. Veined octopuses carry coconut shells to build a shelter.
    • B. Each arm can taste.
    • C. Octopuses have three hearts.
    • D. Octopuses live for one or two years.

The Shark on the Motorway

During a storm last spring, a photo exploded across social media. It showed a large shark swimming beside cars on a flooded motorway. Within hours it had been shared more than 80,000 times, often with captions such as "Stay indoors — sharks in the streets!" Fourteen-year-old Amira Haddad saw the photo in her family group chat. Something felt wrong. "The shark looked too sharp compared with the blurry water," she said. "So I decided to check." First, Amira ran a reverse image search. She found the same shark in a wildlife photo published years earlier, on a website about ocean animals. Next, she checked two local news sites. Neither mentioned sharks; both reported flooding and road closures. Finally, she found an article from a fact-checking organisation explaining that the image had been edited and had appeared during several different storms in different countries. Amira posted the fact-check in the group chat. "My uncle had already shared the photo," she laughed. "He was embarrassed, but he thanked me." Fact-checkers say edited images spread fastest when they are shocking and arrive during real emergencies, when people are anxious and want to warn others. Their advice is simple: pause before you share, look for the original source, and check whether reliable outlets are reporting the same thing.

  1. Question 2

    Read "The Shark on the Motorway". Which detail best shows the photo had been edited?

    • A. it was shared more than 80,000 times
    • B. the same shark appeared in a wildlife photo published years earlier
    • C. the water was blurry
    • D. her uncle shared it

  1. Question 3

    Claim: Ella is determined. A: "Ella has two brothers." B: "Ella likes pasta." C: "Ella lives near the sea." D: "Ella practised the piece every evening until she could play it without a mistake." Which sentence best supports the claim?

    • A. A
    • B. B
    • C. C
    • D. D

Two Views on Zoos

TEXT A – "A Lifeline for Wildlife" Modern zoos are not the cramped menageries of the past. The best of them are centres for conservation, research and education. Breeding programmes in zoos have helped save species such as the Arabian oryx and the California condor from extinction, and some animals bred in zoos have been successfully returned to the wild. For millions of children who will never visit a rainforest or a savannah, seeing a living animal up close can spark a lifelong love of nature. Closing zoos would not free animals; it would abandon them. TEXT B – "Wild at Heart" No enclosure, however large, can replace a wild home. An elephant may walk dozens of kilometres a day in the wild; in a zoo, it may cover a fraction of that, and some show repetitive swaying or pacing that scientists link to stress. While a few breeding programmes have succeeded, most animals in zoos belong to species that are not endangered at all. If we truly want to protect wildlife, our money would do far more good protecting habitats where animals already live.

  1. Question 4

    Read "Two Views on Zoos". Which evidence does Text A use to support its view?

    • A. Habitats are cheaper to protect.
    • B. Breeding programmes have saved species like the Arabian oryx.
    • C. Elephants sway and pace in zoos.
    • D. Most zoo animals are not endangered.

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 5

    Read "Should Primary Schools Ban Homework?". What evidence does the writer give in paragraph 2?

    • A. Research reviews found little effect on young pupils' results.
    • B. A quotation from a head teacher.
    • C. A story about one tired child.
    • D. Statistics about pets.

The Mapmaker's Apprentice

Ines had worked in Master Corvo's shop for three years, and in all that time he had never let her draw a single line on a real map. She ground his inks, stretched his parchment and swept up the shavings from his quills. When she asked why she could not draw, he only said, "A mapmaker must first learn to see." So Ines watched. She watched sailors come in, sunburnt and impatient, to buy charts of the southern coast. She watched merchants argue over which mountain pass was fastest. Most of all, she watched Master Corvo, who spent far longer listening to travellers than he did holding his pen. One winter morning, a fisherman stumbled into the shop, soaked and shaking. A storm had pushed his boat far north, past the edge of every chart in the city. He had found a narrow channel between two islands that no map showed, and it had saved his life. Master Corvo was in bed with a fever. The fisherman was leaving on the evening tide. Ines hesitated only for a moment. Then she sat the fisherman by the fire and asked him questions — not just where the channel was, but how the water changed colour near the rocks, where the gulls gathered, how long it took to row from one island to the other. She wrote down every answer. Only when she had heard everything did she pick up a pen. When Master Corvo recovered, she laid the new chart in front of him. He studied it for a long time without speaking. Then he took his own pen, signed his name in the corner, and beneath it, for the first time, he wrote hers.

  1. Question 6

    Read "The Mapmaker's Apprentice". Which quotation best shows that Master Corvo approves of Ines's work?

    • A. "Master Corvo was in bed with a fever."
    • B. "He studied it for a long time without speaking."
    • C. "She wrote down every answer."
    • D. "beneath it, for the first time, he wrote hers."

  1. Question 7

    Claim: The new park has been popular. A: "The park opened in May." B: "The park has a pond." C: "Over 2,000 people visited in the first week." D: "The park was designed by a local artist." Which sentence best supports the claim?

    • A. A
    • B. B
    • C. C
    • D. D

  2. Question 8

    Claim: Ravi is nervous about his speech. A: "Ravi's hands shook as he shuffled his notes." B: "Ravi wore a blue shirt." C: "The hall was full." D: "Ravi's speech was about rainforests." Which sentence best supports the claim?

    • A. A
    • B. B
    • C. C
    • D. D

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Answer key: Citing textual evidence

  1. 1. A. Veined octopuses carry coconut shells to build a shelter.

  2. 2. B. the same shark appeared in a wildlife photo published years earlier

  3. 3. D. D

  4. 4. B. Breeding programmes have saved species like the Arabian oryx.

  5. 5. A. Research reviews found little effect on young pupils' results.

  6. 6. D. "beneath it, for the first time, he wrote hers."

  7. 7. C. C

  8. 8. A. A