S'More From The AP
Week Ending September 18, 2015
Claims, Evidence and Reasoning - With Mrs. Brigance!
It’s ironic that I was asked to write about C-E-R (Claim-Evidence-Reasoning) for this weeks’ S’More. You see I have a list of things that I want to accomplish this year. Using the C-E-R method of scientific writing is on that list (as are using the app “Showbie” and making regularly scheduled hair appointments so my grey is always fully covered J) Mrs. Cohen introduced the method to me last year and related that her daughter was using it in middle school science. Wanting to be proactive in getting the kids ready for middle school, I agreed to dip my feet into using it even though it was one more thing to do in my already busy class.
Well, I failed miserably and didn’t use the C-E-R method—not even once! Which led me to the conscious decision to use it this year. My point being is that I’m no expert by any means and I’ve just started using the method but I can already see how applying it is a beneficial learning tool. The C-E-R method is applicable to any curriculum and can be adapted to any course of study.
For scientific writing purposes, we started with a testable question (Does water temperature affect the rate at which a Skittle dissolves?). The kids made a “claim” , predicting what would occur. This is really the hypothesis but “claim” is a more “kid-friendly” term and my students had no trouble offering their opinions of what they thought would happen in our investigation.
Next, we conducted the investigation and recorded our “evidence”, which is simply, observations. Somehow the word “evidence” made data collecting more glamorous—due, perhaps, to so many episodes of CSI. The kids really wanted to collect evidence to support their claim. We practiced writing skills by putting the evidence into short, 3-5 sentence paragraphs as opposed to just listing the observations.
Finally, we came up with the “reasoning”. What is the science behind why you observed what you observed? This was the most challenging. Providing a vocabulary word bank and sentence stem helps. This part will take practice, but with consistency I hope they will feel confident in their ability to express scientific reasoning.
In discussing this with Mrs. Clark, we thought about how great it would be if this method were used consistently across grade levels. She suggested color-coding the C-E-R for younger grades and how well it would support the 4th graders as they prepare for STAAR.
Below is a link to a simple form that could be used in any grade for any science investigation. It could be used across the curriculum to analyze a piece of literature or debate a topic in social studies. I’ve even thought about how I could use it for the kids to enhance critical thinking when solving real world math problems.
If you have experience in the C-E-R method, I’d love to hear about how you use it. There are hundreds of resources and ideas on Pinterest (my personal favorite for “one stop shopping”). So this year, I plan on backing up my “claim” to use C-E-R and collect solid “evidence” that will give me “reason” to believe in the incredible power of this teaching tool.
Worth Watching
Worth Reading
Tech Corner
FoxVox will speak any text you highlight in a web page. FoxVox can also create audiobooks in mp3, ogg, and wav formats. You can now easily turn your blogs and articles into podcasts.
Check it out, visit the link below!