Claim, Evidence, Reasoning in the K-5 classroom has changed my teacher life, and I’m pretty sure many other elementary teachers! This is part 4 in the Set It Up series!
So, yeah… I remember when it first came across my desk I was hesitant. Why? Well.. because someone is always coming up with a new way to say something, repackage, and basically take the old and make it new in education. That’s exactly what I thought when I saw the terms Claim, Evidence, Reasoning. It looked like the scientific method, went through the same process, but would require me to teach something else to my students.
Scientific Method?
As for the scientific method, I love a good learning and investigation process. If you are answering questions scientifically, you should use a scientific process, but always using the scientific method totally makes me feel -ish about science if I HAVE to use it. I know it makes grown men and women crawl into the fetal position when their baby comes home with the date for the science fair, but it really doesn’t have to be this way at all! If you investigate something scientifically… you should want to, not have to. Which brings me to my first question: Do your students know how to investigate? I know they have what it takes…. CURIOSITY!
Investigate with students
Let’s face it… teaching elementary students to use the scientific method everytime you investigate scientifically in the classroom is daunting and time consuming! But… Claim, Evidence, Reasoning… not so much! First, let’s make sure your students understand that science is how we systematically find the answers to the questions we have…the things we wonder about… the problems we notice. Students need to know and understand this first. Then we can start using Claim, Evidence, Reasoning as the process applied in the classroom to investigate.
After understanding the abstract concept of science, it’s time to introduce Claim, Evidence, Reasoning. Please HYPE it up. Investigate something fun and interesting to students like: What’s our favorite snack? How many students have ridden a roller coaster? Why does the lunch line get backed up? Make it relatable to students. Always start with a question, either you give them a question or better yet… go with one your students have!
Make a Claim
Once the question has been introduced that needs to be answered, it’s time to make a claim… This is the old hypothesis, which I believe…. students should know that term! A claim is simply what students believe the answer to the question might be. Some students totally have hang ups on this simple step. Why? They don’t want to be wrong, but we have to start encouraging them to be ok with being wrong.
Look for Evidence
Time to gather evidence. After making the claim, students need to decide how to go about finding the answer. Emphasis on students need to decide how to go about finding the answer. Found in many of our NGSS standards is the wording, plan and conduct an investigation. We don’t need to hand them an instruction sheet for a lab. Do scientists get this when they are looking for a cure for a disease? No. We have to develop this skill. Then move on to gathering data and organizing it. Again…. Students need to organize their own data.. Not fill out a premade table or chart.
After all the data has been collected, it’s time to make sense of it. Not only must we make sense of it, but we need to use reasoning. Students need to use a scientific principle that explains the data and refer back to their claim. Were they right? Were they wrong? Do they need to investigate more? What have they learned? All this should be explained during the reasoning step. Just like that… you and your students have gone through the scientific method process in 3 steps they will remember if you use it on the reg. Which you totally should!
Making Cross-Curricular Connections
So why this instead of the scientific method? It is simplified and totally doesn’t overwhelm students. It encourages them to love science by not making them run for the hills. With the right teacher attitude, it encourages curiosity and explanation. It’s even found in our Common Core ELA standards. Students are required to use text evidence and supply reasoning to support the answers to their questions when they read. It may be you or the teacher next door, but we are all working together here to teach our students how to explain anything without saying, “I watched it on the internet.” That.. is so important. We MUST teach our students to question all the content on the internet. We cause havoc in the world when we just believe everything we see. It’s our job now more than ever to foster students that question what they see and read.
What can students investigate?
There is literally so much that Claim, Evidence, Reasoning can be applied to. I know you would love a list, but I’m not going to provide you with that crutch. Instead, get to know your students. Get to know what they are interested in. Find out what the latest trends are. Look for problems in the stories you read with students. Teach them how to continue to be curious. Go outside and just sit.. Observe… Wonder. Believe it or not, we have to actually practice being curious because slowly as students get older their curiosities for the world change and not for the better always. Keep them curious about science! And for those of you that LOVE a specific example, Edutopia outlines a great one with the Mars Rover, Curiosity!
Resources for Claim, Evidence, Reasoning
So what do you need to keep curiosity alive in your classroom? Surely this will take lots of supplies. No, not really. Just a notebook for collecting evidence and going through the process. I do know you may want a place to start. Who doesn’t?
For K-1 teachers… Tiny Minds Science is perfect for getting started and teaching students what science is all about. For students in grades 2-5, I recommend…What is a scientist? It even ends with baking cookies on the sidewalk!
Don’t forget to grab the Ultimate Project-Based Learning classroom guide to help along with all these endeavors! Let me know what you need! Send me an email at bonnie@iheartsteam.com !
