text-based evidence in social studies

As our 2nd Social Studies Benchmark indicated, students are still having trouble citing text-based evidence in open response questions. This issue also speaks to their ability to answer multiple-choice questions that require the same skill. 

In order to correct this, we spent time today re-evaluating how we initially wrote about two sources that conveyed two different European opinions of Native Americans during early settlement. First, we performed a close-reading of each text, annotating in the margins about the general ideas each European perspective represented. Then, we reviewed the following three steps (MSE) students should keep in mind when citing evidence from the text: 

Make your claim

• This is your actual answer to the question being asked

Support your claim with evidence from the text
1.    Copy the sentence directly from the text
2.    Put the sentence in quotation marks (" ") 
3.    Include the page/paragraph number in parentheses after the quote
4.    Add a period after the parentheses
Explain how your evidence supports your claim 

• Never leave a quote hanging! You must always explain how it connects to the claim you're trying to make*

*Note: I make it a point to reiterate the importance of this final step. I tell them about how in my freshman year of college, my Professors often criticized my papers because I would "drop a quote and leave it", meaning I wouldn't explain how it supported my point. It's a very important that students remember this step in order to "close the loop" on their citing evidence process. 

Below you'll find an example of the re-looping questions, as well as student work that demonstrates her ability to properly use the MSE method.