This teaching strategy has been adapted for use in UK classrooms from our Common Core-Aligned Writing Prompts supplements.
This teaching strategy has been adapted for use in UK classrooms from our Common Core-Aligned Writing Prompts supplements.
To engage with and analyse a text effectively, students need to be able to identify appropriate evidence, thinking about whether or not it supports their claims and argument. The purpose of this strategy is to help students distinguish between relevant and irrelevant evidence so that they can make appropriate selections for their analytical writing and debates.
In this exercise, students will identify evidence that is relevant to prove a particular claim. This activity is most effective if students have a basic command of the concept of relevance. Therefore, we suggest modelling this process with a few examples. We recommend that you start with a real-world example and then test students’ understanding in a literature-based example
Example 1: Real-World Claim: Mobile phones should not be allowed in school.
Here are some ideas to bring up during a discussion of this question:
Example 2: Literature-based Claim: Priestley presents the character of Mr Birling in An Inspector Calls as ignorant and out of touch.
Here are some ideas that you might bring up during a discussion of this question:
Continue to have students practise this exercise individually or in groups. Provide text-based analytical claims for students, and have each individual or group come up with three pieces of evidence that might be used to support the claim. Two of these selections should represent relevant evidence – evidence that addresses the particular claim. One of these selections should be accurate and credible but not relevant to proving that particular claim. Explain to students that they will present their claim and three pieces of evidence to the whole class (or to another group) and that the audience will have to determine which evidence is relevant and which is irrelevant.
For more teaching strategies designed for UK Educators, view our PDF resource Teaching Strategies.
Students study the character of Mr Birling, critically assessing Priestley’s presentation of him, before using the character to reflect on how identity can influence people's views and behaviour.
Students explore the moral codes of the world of the play, before being introduced to the concept of a universe of obligation and participating in a debate on workers’ rights.
Students use the character of Sheila to further understand the interplay between identity and choices, before going on to analyse Priestley’s presentation of Sheila in Act One.
Students prepare to write an essay on theme by identifying and analysing the themes explored in the play.