JOT DOWN YOUR ANSWER OR DISCUSS
Where (in life, work or
school) does one need to
read non-fiction and use it
to support a statement,
opinion or decision?
EVIDENCE
BASED
WRITING:
Preparing Learners to
write for the 2014 GED
and Beyond
LET’S SHARE!
Padlet.com/wall/ABEwriting2013
http://padlet.com/wall/ABEwriting2013
What is Evidence
Based Writing?
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES:
PWBAT
• Define “evidence based writing”.
• Explain the “extended response” component of
the RLA test of the 2014 GED and related
rubrics.
• Identify and implement instructional activities to
prepare students for evidence based writing (&
reading) tasks.
• Identify ways to adapt materials for learners
who below “GED level” in order to incorporate
evidence based writing at all levels.
GED 2014: What are students asked to do?
Read 2 non-fiction texts - about 400 to 900 words.
Read and respond to a prompt:
“The article presents arguments from both
supporters and critics of Daylight Savings
time who disagree about the practice’s
impact on energy consumption and safety. In
your response, analyze both positions
presented in the article to determine which
one is best supported. Use relevant and
specific evidence from the article to support
your response.”
GED 2014:
EVIDENCE BASED WRITING RUBRIC
 Argument & Evidence
 Development &
Organization of Ideas
 Clarity and Formal English
Use organizer to draft
& write paragraph
Reread article &
identify evidence
Read prompt
Read related article
& Summarize
Teaser about
“controversial” Issue
Explain task
State claim
LOWER LEVEL
STUDENTS
Writing Tasks
Reading and Responding
1. Read a Journey’s story related to
the unit every week
2. Students identify the topic of the
story.
3. Students use sentence frames to
identify what is similar in their lives
to the author’s life and what is
different using evidence from the
text.
4. Students identify unknown words
from the story, and we work together
to identify the part of speech and
guess at the meaning from context
clues.
Students write a
paragraph with a topic
sentence supported by
evidence from their own
experiences.
Weekly Journal:
Students have 30
minutes to respond to a
question that relates to
the topic of the week. I
provide feedback on
their writing each week.
READ
THE
TEXT
Summarize
READING STRATEGIES
• Use context clues to guess at unknown
vocabulary
New Word
Noun
Verb
Adj
Definition/Meaning
• Charts and organizers to pull evidence
from a text and categorize it
• Venn Diagrams to compare characters in
a story or candidates in an election
Unpack the Prompt
State a Claim
& Identify Evidence
Would you rather be
raised by wild dogs or
monkeys?
Identify evidence from
each text to support your
claim. (Underline it.)
quote,
or summarize,
or paraphrase
“evidence from the text”
One similarity between the author’s life
and my life is that we ____________________.
I ____________, and he/she
_______________, too.
We both ______________________.
One difference between the author’s life
and my life is that we ___________________.
He/She ________________________,
but I _______________________________.
We____________________________.
STRUCTURE?
Beginning
Middle
Organized
paragraphs
End
WHAT WILL YOU
IMPLEMENT IN
YOUR CLASS?
WHAT WILL YOU
ADD OR ADJUST
FOR YOUR
STUDENTS OR
SETTING?
LET’S SHARE!
Padlet.com/wall/ABEwriting2013
http://padlet.com/wall/ABEwriting2013