The Goal: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences and interpretations drawn from the text.
Text Evidence (Nonfiction)
Textual Evidence is the details found in a passage that support the main idea or claim.
Explicit Evidence:
Implicit Evidence:
Explicit Evidence:
- Evidence found directly in the text
Implicit Evidence:
- Information found in a text that may require the reader to make an inference
- An inference is an educated guess
Activity 1: "Changing the Ecosystem"
A food chain is a series of links between plants and animals. It starts with a plant. The next part of the link is a plant eater. When the prairie plants started to die or be replaced with houses and roads, the animals that depended on them lost their food source. So while the farmers produced more food for people, they broke the animals’ food chain and the animals died or had to move. This was a great mistake. We are paying for that mistake today. And, unfortunately, people still keep making that mistake. They keep breaking the food chains.
A food chain is part of a bigger system called a food web. That web links the living things in an ecosystem. The herbivores in that system depend on the plants. If the plants are removed, the herbivores cannot survive. Then the carnivores, the animals that eat other animals, lose their food, too. Remove just one kind of plant from an environment and you disrupt the food web. Plow up the land and you destroy the whole system. The problem was there were more and more people and less and less natural habitats. The timeline shows how the population of Chicago people changed.
1880 Population of the city is 503,185; farms continue to expand
1890 Population of the city is 1,099,850
1900 Population is 1,698,676
1910 Factories expand in the city; population is 2,185,283
1920 City population has grown to 2,701,705
1930 City population is 3,376,438
By 1900, Illinois and other Midwestern states were becoming known as the nation’s breadbasket. This was because millions of acres of land had been turned from prairie into farms. Those farms could grow corn and wheat and other grains. Those grains were used to make bread and other food for people. This was not progress for everyone.
That agricultural progress benefited many people. The farmers and businesses that processed the grains prospered. Chicago became a transportation center. It became an industrial center, too. More and more homes, businesses, and roads were built. But many of the animals and plants that were native to this area were destroyed. So was the natural system called the prairie.
Today, people are trying to restore the prairie, but it’s a great challenge. Suburban housing is expanding. Pollution is increasing. What’s next? People need to decide which is more important. Should we keep building roads and homes or should we fix the housing we have and leave land free of construction so that what’s left of the natural habitat can survive?
A food chain is part of a bigger system called a food web. That web links the living things in an ecosystem. The herbivores in that system depend on the plants. If the plants are removed, the herbivores cannot survive. Then the carnivores, the animals that eat other animals, lose their food, too. Remove just one kind of plant from an environment and you disrupt the food web. Plow up the land and you destroy the whole system. The problem was there were more and more people and less and less natural habitats. The timeline shows how the population of Chicago people changed.
1880 Population of the city is 503,185; farms continue to expand
1890 Population of the city is 1,099,850
1900 Population is 1,698,676
1910 Factories expand in the city; population is 2,185,283
1920 City population has grown to 2,701,705
1930 City population is 3,376,438
By 1900, Illinois and other Midwestern states were becoming known as the nation’s breadbasket. This was because millions of acres of land had been turned from prairie into farms. Those farms could grow corn and wheat and other grains. Those grains were used to make bread and other food for people. This was not progress for everyone.
That agricultural progress benefited many people. The farmers and businesses that processed the grains prospered. Chicago became a transportation center. It became an industrial center, too. More and more homes, businesses, and roads were built. But many of the animals and plants that were native to this area were destroyed. So was the natural system called the prairie.
Today, people are trying to restore the prairie, but it’s a great challenge. Suburban housing is expanding. Pollution is increasing. What’s next? People need to decide which is more important. Should we keep building roads and homes or should we fix the housing we have and leave land free of construction so that what’s left of the natural habitat can survive?
1. What is the main idea or point of this selection?
2. What piece of explicit textual evidence led you to your answer for #1?
3. Infer why the author included the timeline of the population of Chicago.
4. What implicit evidence from the text led you to your conclusion for #3?
2. What piece of explicit textual evidence led you to your answer for #1?
3. Infer why the author included the timeline of the population of Chicago.
4. What implicit evidence from the text led you to your conclusion for #3?
Activity 2: Speech from President Obama
These are excerpts from the speech by President Barack Obama, Arlington, Virginia, September 8, 2009.
… at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide. Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it...
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country. Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.…Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
1. What is the main idea or point of this speech?
2. What piece of explicit textual evidence led you to your answer for #1?
3. Infer why President Obama repeated the word "responsibility" so many times.
4. What implicit evidence from the text led you to your conclusion for #3?
2. What piece of explicit textual evidence led you to your answer for #1?
3. Infer why President Obama repeated the word "responsibility" so many times.
4. What implicit evidence from the text led you to your conclusion for #3?