Cutting up the Text Evidence

We dove into setting again while reading Tuck Everlasting .  As we delve more and more into citing text evidence, I wanted the students to really see what that meant.

Chapter one of the book describes the setting of the book in great detail.  In fact, it is so vivid that I had the students dissect the chapter to create a drawing.  On that drawing, they were only allowed to put something that appeared in the chapter.  If it wasn't written down, they couldn't draw it.

Then, I made a copy of chapter one for each student.  They were instructed to cut the text apart, gluing the actual text onto their picture to prove that what was drawn was in the text.




This really helped to show the students that authors truly do paint pictures with their words.  It also allowed them a chance to "prove" their drawings using text evidence.

Wow...short and sweet!  How unlike me :)

23 comments

  1. What an awesome idea! I could see doing this with poetry too. My wheels are turning...thanks!

    -Maria

    ReplyDelete
  2. We drew the setting based off of chapter 1 too, but I LOVE how you took it a step further and made them use the text even more!!! We are working on group drawings of the setting now and I'm so stealing this (with credit of course!! ) :) :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like that idea. Is "Tuck Everlasting" good for fourth grade? We do not do novel studies, our new reading curriculum has ten units and each one lasts three weeks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it would be fine for fourth if you really read it closely with them. There is a lot of figurative language and flowing language, so it isn't an "easy" read.

      Delete
  4. Great post with great ideas! I love how you had the kids cut up the text and glue it onto their drawings. Wow!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ohhh I like this a lot! Thanks for sharing your idea!! :-)

    Real Teachers Learn

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks everyone! Glad you find it useful for your own classroom :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh this is excellent!!! I will definitely be trying this in the future, thank you Steph!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a great idea! I'm thinking the idea of cutting out the text support may also work with others skills, especially for my kiddos who seem to struggle with taking it directly from the text. They read it off the page and then I ask them about it and they've created all new information that's not what was in the text. Thanks for this idea!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I did this lesson twice with Journey to Topaz...so far! I did it for the settings (Tanforan and Topaz) and I'm going to do it for character analysis next. My students enjoyed it and I enjoyed their conversations and watching them go through the process of citing evidence. My principal loved them enough that she has 12 of them hanging in the office. Thank you!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you SO much for coming back to tell me how well the lesson went in your room. It makes my heart happy to know that others are able to use things that I write about in their rooms. :) It is an added bonus that your principal liked it too....check plus for your awesome teaching!

      Delete
  10. I LOVE this! Having them cut out the text really reinforces the concept of using text evidence!! Cannot wait to try this week!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. These Tuck Everlasting lessons about predicting, setting, and figurative language are so great. Are there any other lesson ideas you did throughout the rest of the novel study? My colleagues and I are doing a literature novel unit with Tuck as well, but this is our first time so we are really learning from you and your great activities and discussions. Any more posts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am writing about them as I go (we are still reading the story), so as the ideas come up, I will blog about it. I am posting another idea tomorrow where we did character traits and inference at the same time :)

      Delete
  12. Wow !!! I love the idea. Can't wait to use it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love you ideas! We are currently reading The Sign of the Beaver and this activity fit in perfectly! How did you grade the students? Do you have a particular rubric?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow!! this is a lot like something I do only with poems. I teach 4th grade and love to have kids respond to poems.
      Here is a link to my lesson plan with rubric for the activity. I guess it never occurred to me to do this for fiction.
      Poem Response #1

      Delete
  14. Wow!! this is a lot like something I do only with poems. I teach 4th grade and love to have kids respond to poems.
    Here is a link to my lesson plan with rubric for the activity. I guess it never occurred to me to do this for fiction.
    Poem response #1

    ReplyDelete
  15. I really love this idea and am going to use it with the my advanced ELA students. Did you give them a rubric or instruction sheet? My class is pretty creative so I am let them pretty much draw what they visualized and not really give them step-by-step instructions.

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a fantastic idea. We just started the novel today and I will do this tomorrow when we delve into Chapter 1. Thank you for your brilliance!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. We did this today. I've struggled all year to get my 5th graders to "go back to the text." It was hard getting them started with this. They were worried about not being a "good draw-er." They worried about what I wanted. I kept telling them to go back to the text. Finally, one of my most difficult said, "Hey, this turned out better that I thought it was going to." They are looking pretty good.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I’m thinking of using this as a writing lesson for a fictional narrative and using descriptive language. It will also introduce them to a new book! (I will only use the first chapter). Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Love this idea! I do a spin on it in my writing workshop. I have students write a description of setting in a piece in progress then illustrate their words then look for gaps between words and images. If they draw things that do not appear in the description, they go back and revise.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave a comment! I love to hear what you think about what is posted :)