How many times have you asked students to find text evidence to support their answer? It can become a dry, repetitive, boring task for students and teachers. Today we shook things up a bit by using a simple strategy I called Prove It Bags. As you can see from the photo, all you need to do is grab a brown paper lunch bag (or a few) and label them “Prove It!”
We then looked at the questions provided with the text and decided that they were too boring – mostly “right there” types of questions, such as
- How many wings does a dragonfly have?
- What do dragonflies eat?
We replaced these with higher level thinking questions for which students would need to find multiple pieces of evidence and use some reasoning skills, such as
- What would happen if we had a dragonfly as a class pet? PROVE IT!
- Why might a dragonfly be called an ace flyer? PROVE IT!
- What is something dragonflies can’t do? PROVE IT!
Print these on colored paper for a bit of extra pop!
Last step was to have students pull questions out of the bag and read them aloud to their group. The novelty and mystery of this type of strategy always grabs and maintains interest over just handing the students a worksheet.
Consider how you might use a Prove It! Bag for your next lesson.
P.S. I also came up with a really corny chant for the students. Depending on the age of your students, and your own style, you might want to give it a try.
Don't be a goof
Find some proof!
One piece is okay
But more gets "hurray!"
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