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You Do · Students practice on their own

Claim-Evidence-Reasoning

Claim-Evidence-Reasoning asks a student to state a position, support it from the text or data, and explain how the support actually bears on the claim. TeacherHero generates it as an independent You Do task with a student worksheet, and the reasoning step is the one it writes the criteria around.

Construct an independent claim supported by evidence and reasoning.

Real generated output

Independent CER: Ada’s Two Obligations

The You Do phase of a Grade 6 ELA lesson, as TeacherHero generated it. Planned for 14 minutes.

  1. The prompt

    How does Ada’s promise to her mother deepen your understanding of her resolve to find Tomas? Explain how two obligations shape one difficult choice. Use one fresh quotation and use resolve and obligation accurately.

  2. Directions

    • Read both complete quotations before planning your response.
    • Use the first quotation as fresh evidence for your response.
    • Use the other quotations to understand Ada’s action and obligations.
    • Write your own response instead of copying an earlier class response.
    • Write three or four sentences with a claim, evidence, and reasoning.
    • Use resolve and obligation to explain Ada’s choice.
    • Check your work against the checklist before submitting your paper.

  3. While you monitor

    • Minutes 0–2: Confirm that students read all three complete quotations before writing.
    • Minutes 2–5: Scan plans for a claim naming both obligations and Ada’s choice.
    • Minutes 5–11: Check that students use the first quotation as fresh evidence.
    • Ask students to explain how the mother’s promise changes the meaning of Ada’s later action.
    • Redirect summaries by asking which source detail proves the claim.
    • Give feedback that names the goal, the current evidence, and one next move.
    • Minutes 11–14: Collect responses and mark claim, evidence, reasoning, and accurate vocabulary use.

  4. Success criteria

    • I make a claim about how the mother’s promise shapes Ada’s choice.
    • I include the complete first quotation as fresh evidence.
    • I connect the mother’s obligation to Ada’s action toward Tomas.
    • I explain how the evidence shows resolve despite fear.
    • I use resolve and obligation accurately in my response.

  5. Student checklist

    • I answered the question about Ada’s difficult choice.
    • I named both her promise to her mother and her obligation to Tomas.
    • I included the complete first quotation as fresh evidence.
    • I explained how the evidence supports my claim.
    • I used resolve and obligation to explain her choice.

  6. If a student is stuck

    Ask the student to reread Fresh evidence and Two obligations. Ask which duty each quotation shows and which action reveals Ada’s choice. Have the student explain the connection aloud before writing.

  7. For early finishers

    Add one sentence explaining how Ada’s action shows she does not falter. Use falter accurately.

Why the coach chose it here — CER Response is the best fit because the lesson’s final product is a short claim-evidence-reasoning response, and earlier phases already modeled, guided, and collaboratively repaired vocabulary-based analysis. This phase removes sentence frames and partner support while asking students to answer a new question about how Ada’s promise to her mother changes our understanding of her choice to find Tomas. The worksheet uses a fresh source sentence as evidence and earlier sentences only as context. The key learning-science lever is elaboration: students must connect two obligations, Ada’s resolve, and her courageous action rather than merely define vocabulary. The focused quotations, brief planning, and three- or four-sentence response fit grade 6 learners within the required 14 minutes.

Frequently asked questions

Which part of CER do students find hardest?

Reasoning. Claim and evidence are retrievable; explaining why that evidence supports that claim is the move students skip, usually by restating the evidence in different words. Look at the success criteria on this page for how the model separated the three parts in one real lesson.

What does the student work on?

A student worksheet — the resource kind the You Do phase is contracted to produce for this strategy. It carries the prompt and the criteria, so a student can check their own response against the bar before handing it in rather than after.

Does the prompt use the lesson's own text?

Yes. The lesson's sources reach every phase's prompt, so the evidence students are asked to marshal comes from what they actually read that day. A CER prompt about an unrelated passage is the generic output this pipeline is built to avoid.

Strategies that pair with it

Analysis Chart

You Do · Organize evidence, examples, or steps in an analysis chart.

See the example

Analytical Paragraph

You Do · Write a claim-evidence-reasoning paragraph.

See the example

Constructed Response

You Do · Answer a target-aligned question independently.

See the example

Vocabulary Application

You Do · Use key vocabulary accurately in a new context.

See the example
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