Examples+from+the+Classroom

=Introducing CER=

In a 5th grade classroom:

I introduced the terms Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning in a non scientific way last week. After playing Justin Bieber's song "Baby" I wrote on the board "Justin Bieber is the best musician ever." This provoked unprecedented upheaval in my classroom with those who agreed passionately, and those who vehemently opposed. We used our strategies for holding a scientific discussion, which we termed "belugawhale" to talk about my claim. To support my claim I provided evidence. Amongst my points were; Justin Bieber dating Selena Gomez, Justin Bieberwon the most popular artist of the year award in 2010, Justin Bieber has had 2 multiplatinum albums, Justin Bieber records albums with snoop dog and Ludacrios, Justin Bieberhas 673,000, 000 views on Youtube, and gave a few other statistics about awards he has won.

The discussion unfold with people trying to reason out my evidence. The first one on the table was the one regarding Selena Gomez. It was clear to nearly all of them that this information was irrelevant and did not support the claim I made. Then we started discussing the relevance of the youtube views. There were those that noticed that nearly 2/3 of the views were dislikes - this evoked a discussion about the fact that despite the fact that many disliked the song, that many people had taken the time to visit and vote.. which made the song popular. At this point, students started to want to change the claim. The shared that I had not made a claim, rather, I had stated an opinion. The word best was different for everyone and did not belong in a scientific discussion - we all agreed that this was true; so what should we write?

We reviewed the evidence and determined that all of the evidence pointed to his popularity and success as an artist, not really if he was better than anyone else. We modified the claim to read.. Justin Bieber is a popular artist. At this point one of my students who travels extensively made the point that in some countries, people don't listen to Biebs and or don't know who he is.. which means we should perhaps add more information to our claim. So again, we modified it to read..Justin Bieberis a popular artist in America.

To model the reasoning, we then began to write in paragraph form how each piece of evidence supported what our claim stated. How, precisely, did the number of youtube views indicate his popularity ? How did his awards?

The students had complete ownership over the lesson - having defined, eliminated, and reasoned out the situation and they did it together. The two camps of the room were brought together in the end with a claim that everyone could say and believe in.

Third Grade:
 * Introducing Claims, Evidence and Science Talk **

Last week, I introduced the terms claims and evidence to my students and determined the guidelines for our future science talks. I realized that my students have never been exposed to a science talk- or at least a science talk that revolved around claims and evidence. Thus, I needed to introduce my students to science talks and the terms that we would be using throughout the rest of the year. I chose to do this by borrowing a video from my very brave and fearless fifth grade classmates. The fifth grade team got together and taped themselves having a science talk about observations and inferences. Not only did this video model what I expected from a science talk and expose my students to what a science talk could (and should) look like, but it also taught my students the difference between and observation and an inference. This would later become essential in our own science talk and labeling the different pieces of “evidence”. Once my students watched the video, I asked them what they noticed about the talk. What were some things that we should bring into our own talks and what were potentially some behaviors and/or statements that we should not bring to our talks? The first observation that was discussed was about one of the teachers sneaking a York Peppermint Patty from the bag. The students labeled this as “messing around with the experiment” and agreed that this was a definite “no-no”. Students also picked up on the language that was being used in the conversation. They noticed that when an individual disagreed with someone, they supported their opinion with a reason or example. I explained to them that this was supporting their ideas with evidence. The students agreed that this was something we should include in our science talks because it would eliminate any harsh feelings if someone disagreed with another’s claim or reasoning. By the end of our conversation, the students agreed on 10 guidelines that we would follow in our future science talks. They included a range of ideas from being patient, respectful, thoughtful and knowledgeable. Ultimately, our list provides guidelines on how to have a respectful and intelligent discussion and discourse. By allowing the students to come up with the guidelines and discuss what should be included on our “list”, they gained ownership of our science talks. They set the stage for what every science talk should be modeled after and I feel that this will have a significant impact on the quality of our discussions. I was able to test my theory about the impact of providing students with ownership on guidelines the very next day. I still did not feel that my students were ready for a full-fledged science talk. Thus, I decided to once again, take advice from my Fifth Grade classmates and introduce claims and evidence in a non-scientific way. I tweaked the discussion by not including the Reasoning portion of the CER framework for several reasons. First of all, I have third graders whose attention span is minimal and mind capacity easily exceeded. I also have a very challenging class. I felt that introducing too many new concepts at once would muddle my ultimate objective: introducing the students to the CER framework. I decided to keep the initial discussion to the terms of claims and evidence and how they impact the other. My goal is to later conduct a writing task that will introduce and explain the reasoning portion of the CER framework. I brought the entire third grade together again and sat them in a circle (one of our guidelines!). I also provided every student with a copy of our guidelines that they can keep in their science journals for reference at any point during the conversation. Thinking on my feet, I also incorporated the infamous “talking stick” to science talks. Although one of our guidelines is to not interrupt when someone is talking, at the moment I felt that my particular mix of students required a more physical symbol of when it is appropriate to share an opinion and when one needs to be quiet and listen. Thus, holding the talking stick is the only way that one is allowed to speak in a science talk (unless you are the teacher, I found that looking back at the video of this lesson, I interrupted the students on several occasions. I hope that I can back up these instances with evidence to support my behaviors, but I must also learn to “respect the stick”). Once the students were reminded of the guidelines and felt prepared for our discussion, I wrote a claim on the board that I hoped would get the majority of the students talking with passion about the topic. My claim was, “The New York Yankees are the greatest baseball team in the country”, a simple, sweet and very controversial claim to make in the middle of Pennsylvania. Although I did not get the “uproar” of student response (possibly because we lectured them so much about not calling out and being respectful), I did get many of the students talking about the claim. However, I did not fail to support my claim without evidence. I posted all of the pieces of evidence that I had to support my claim on the board in a random order. Once the evidence was read and confusion about the quality of my factual pieces of evidence was cleared up (my favorite being, “I don’t think they won 27 World Series Championships because that is just too good”), the students began to share their opinions supported by evidence. Students quickly realized that indeed my beloved Yankees were a pretty good team; noting that their achievements did support my claim and were significant. However, students had a hard time believing that pinstripes made the Yankees stronger. Although one student supported her opinion well that the Yankees might be proud of their pinstripes and thus, try harder to do well, we concurred that this was my opinion and could not be a significant piece of evidence. We created an “opinion” column and put this fact in its appropriate place. Students also discussed the fact that “cute players” doesn’t mean the team is the greatest and that not all might agree that the players are cute. This piece of evidence was also labeled as an opinion and discarded. Students then decided that some of my evidence was factual, but did not support my claim. For example, the Yankees do play in New York, but that does not necessarily mean they are the greatest team in the country. The students put this fact in a column labeled, “un-supporting evidence”, and until we think of another name (any ideas?) the name will remain. This ignited a discussion about a piece of evidence about a particular player on the Yankees. The students discussed the fact about Derek Jeter’s 3,000th career hit. One student very eloquently argued that although that is a fact, and quite an achievement, one player does not make the entire team the greatest. Ultimately, this piece of evidence was also labeled as “un-supporting evidence” and discarded. Once the students decided on the pieces of evidence that pertained to my claim, they discussed and decided that my evidence did not support the wording of my claim. I did not have enough to confidently state that the Yankees are the best team in the country. The class decided that my evidence supported a claim stating that the Yankees are a “good” baseball team. It was quite exhilarating to witness this science talk. The 50-minute discussion highlighted that when given ownership and some interest; my students could all become engaged. My entire class ended the talk in agreement with my claim. I also gave each student personal experience with deciphering between what is actual evidence, what is an opinion and what might be evidence that does not support the claim. I fully believe that my students are now ready to learn how to write this reasoning that they all were able to verbally express and move on to actual science talks in our curriculum.

I believe that a number of the lessons currently available in our 5th grade science curriculum binders have the potential to fit nicely into the CER framework—one of the lessons is Oh Deer! This lesson contains an element of data collection, and the students can easily use the data collected to draw conclusions about the basic needs for animal survival: food, water, shelter, and space. In addition, they can also use the data to determine that limiting factors often (i.e. lack of natural resources or diseases) regulate animal populations naturally.
 * Using Data to Develop Claims, Evidence and Reasoning (5th Grade) **


 * Questions **
 * What do animals need to survive?
 * What are some of the limiting factors?
 * Do populations remain the same or change?
 * What are other factors that might affect the deer population? (Examples include disease, dramatic weather changes, habitat destruction, elimination or introduction of predators, pollution, the introduction of competing species, etc.)

The Oh Deer! game is played (see below for instructions) for 15 rounds. After each round, students count the number of deer and the number of resources. We keep two running totals, one for the deer and one for all the resources. After a few rounds, students gather together to share any observations they made during the game. After 15 rounds, the students work in groups to graph the deer population and analyze the data for any patterns, reminding students that each round represents a season in a deer's life. On the same graph, track the number of resources as a whole in a different color. The students work with their group to generate claims based on the available data that they will share with the other groups.


 * Potential Claims **
 * P opulation increases when animals have access to all four recourses.
 * As the animal population increases, the habitat is used, which in turn, causes the depletion of resources. A drastic decline in resources causes a decline in population.
 * The cycle, including an increase in animal population, which will eventually peak, decline, and repopulate as the resources are replenished.
 * A population can also affected by a variety of limiting factors (prevent a population from growing too large), including disease, extreme weather, pollution, predator and prey relationships, and habitat destruction.

The students are divided into two groups, one representing deer and the other representing the resources animals need to survive (food, water, shelter and space). After teaching the hand signals for food, water, shelter and space the deer line up behind one line and the students playing the resources do the same at the opposite line. While you are explaining the game, the two lines face each other. Count the number of deer and the number of resources and write them down. At the start, both lines should be even.
 * Procedure **

Instruct the deer that they are trying to survive by deciding what resource they need this season. They indicate whether they are seeking food, water, shelter, or space with the appropriate hand signals. Once the deer have chosen which resource they are looking for, they cannot change it until the next round. At the same time the students who are representing the resources repeat the same process as the deer, choosing which resource they represent and use the appropriate hand signal. Once the students in the resource line have which resource they represent, they may not change their hand signal until the next round of play.

Once both sides have chosen their hand signals, the deer can run to the line of resources and pick a student who represents the resource that they are seeking (i.e. their hand signals match.) and take them back to the deer line. A student playing a resource cannot move until a deer has claimed her or him.

If a deer cannot find the resource he or she is looking for, then he or she dies and becomes part of the resource line. Resources that are not claimed remain on the resource line. Once everyone understands the game, all students stand with their backs turned so they cannot see the other line. Ask the students to choose which resources they want to represent and to make the hand signals. On the count of three, all the students turn around and show their signs to the opposite line and the game begins. The deer bring their resources back to their line, showing that they have met their needs for this season and reproduced successfully. The students claimed by deer now become deer themselves for the next round.

in a First Grade Classroom

After viewing the first "Science Talk" of the school year in September and learning through classroom discussions, handouts and readings, I was eager to attempt to teach the children to focus on just one idea, one main learning goal but in a non scientific realm. I also wanted to teach them how to arrive at a focus question, to help plan activities that would possibly provide data to be collected as evidence, to make a claim as a class. In conclusion, my goal was to tie thoughts/ideas together to form some kind of scientific explanation.

I told the children that we were going to practice acting/talking the way Scientists do during investigations. I began the Talk with a claim, "Chocolate ice cream is the best flavor in the world." I taught the children how to use the respectful terms of "I agree" and "I disagree." That was Step One. The children seemed excited about my claim.

I wrote the claim on the white board in front of them.

To support my claim I gave them several pieces of "evidence". For example:

1.). Chocolate ice cream makes everyone happy. 2.). Jackie Chan, a famous Movie Superstar, likes chocolate ice cream best. 3.). Roald Dahl, The author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory wrote about a chocolate ice cream that never melts. 4.). Chocolate ice cream, not any other flavor, was mentioned in a famous Christmas Movie called, "It's a Wonderful Life."

I gave them other statistics and facts as well.

I told them to take their time, to wait and think about it. I asked them what they thought of my claim. I reminded them about how to agree/disagree with respect to all speakers. Various children agreed and disagreed. If they did not give reasoning, I would ask them, "why so you feel that way?" I also asked the other children if they disagreed with each other's statements or if they wanted to add on. In disagreeing, one student said chocolate ice cream is not the best because it doesn't always have chocolate chips in it. Another. child stated that they agreed because chocolate ice cream tastes so good.

In answer to my evidence statements I was pleasantly surprised to hear what they had to say. One response was, "how do you know if they make chocolate ice cream every place in the world." A child raised their hand and in agreement said to me, "Yeah, how do you know that Mrs. Brown?" They were reminded how to speak scientifically with respect, that we all work together in investigations. Children said that chocolate ice cream isn't the best ice-cream in the world. A child further explained that chocolate ice cream isn't good for you. Then another volunteered to restate that comment but added on in saying that chocolate ice cream has too much sugar. Children made comments about various people's flavor being chocolate or other flavors in agreement and disagreement. They asked who Jackie Chan was. They let me know that they never heard of the movie, "It's A Wonderful Life."

We reviewed the evidence and came up with the idea that I did not prove that chocolate ice cream is the best ice cream in the world. I asked them what was to be done with that claim. The children recommended that we change the original claim. We changed my claim on the board to read, "Chocolate is one of the best ice cream flavors in the world." I also asked them to provide me with some evidence to support that claim. I recorded the evidence under the broad heading EVIDENCE on the white board under the restated CLAIM statement. The children then copied/recorded this information into their Science journals.

This was a beneficial lesson for the class. Now on to a Science C/E/R session.


 * Science Writing--CER, Talk Moves and Paragraphing Integration**

Debriefing investigation for the question : "What roles do plants play in an ecosystem?"

Students have completed garden observations, organized components of the ecosystem, used observations to make claims about what plants do in an ecosystem--they act as producers. Producers, we defined, are organisms that make food for themselves and other organisms using water, air, and energy from the sun.

In summarizing our process and findings, I was practicing talk moves, namely restating, students restating other students' statements, further participation and explicating reasoning. In organizing our thoughts, I made an outline of the board with the headings "Claim, Evidence and Reasoning." As we filled each box, I was struck with the perfect writing integration. I decided on the spot that the Claim made a perfect main idea for a paragraph. I instructed the students that they would use the Claim to write a topic and conclusion sentence that restates the main idea or claim. The supporting details of the paragraph would be the pieces of evidence. Finally, the scientific reasoning for how each piece of evidence supports or helps make the claim would be the elaboration for each detail sentence. This set up perfectly reflects our paragraph expectations and clearly outlines the process of scientific explanation.

With regard to the section of the reading about integrating students of varying backgrounds and abilities, I think this set up supported most students with it's whole class summation of information and individual writing. As I continue to use this paragraph model for scientific explanation writing, I plan to have more able students outline and organize the information themselves, while I work with ESL or more dependent children to compile the info.

This is a 5th Grade classroom.