Evidence From Texts in an Essay

1. Ask: "What can a story prove that a report can't? What can a report prove that a story can't?"
2. Collect answers and sort into two columns. Steer to: a report gives how many, how much and how often (scale); a story gives what it is like to live through it (experience).
3. Write both column headings on the board and keep them up.

1. Read the story excerpt: "Every afternoon in July, Mr. Reyes carried his folding chair to the only tree on Delmar Street. The pavement shimmered and the bus stop's metal bench was too hot to touch, but under the tree the air felt like a cool hand on his neck. Children drifted over one by one until, by four o'clock, half the street was crowded into one circle of shade."
2. Read the report excerpt: "Shade in the City. Last summer, students measured the temperature at noon on 40 streets. Streets lined with trees were on average 7 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than streets without them. Pavement in full sun reached 130 degrees, hot enough to burn skin."
3. Write the claim on the board: "Trees make city streets better places to live in summer."
4. Take evidence from the report: "tree-lined streets were on average 7 degrees cooler" across 40 streets. Ask: "What does this prove?" Fish for: that the cooling happens on many streets, not just one. That is scale.
5. Take evidence from the story: "half the street was crowded into one circle of shade." Ask: "What does this show that the number can't?" Fish for: that people need the shade and seek it out; what 7 degrees feels like to a person.
6. Write the model paragraph: "Trees make city streets better places to live in summer. A student survey of 40 streets found that tree-lined streets were on average 7 degrees cooler at noon, so the cooling is not a one-off. The story of Delmar Street shows what that difference means to people: by four o'clock, 'half the street was crowded into one circle of shade.' The survey proves trees cool streets; the story proves people need that cool."
7. Now show a weak version that swaps their jobs: "The story proves most streets are hotter without trees." Ask what went wrong. Answer: one street in a story cannot tell us about most streets.

“The report tells you how much and how often. The story tells you what it's like. Use each for its own job. If you could swap your two pieces of evidence and the paragraph still worked, you haven't explained what either one adds.”

1. Give a new claim: "Hot pavement is a danger in cities." Pairs highlight one scale fact in the report and one experience detail in the story.
2. Pairs write one paragraph: claim, report evidence plus what it adds, story evidence plus what it adds, a final sentence linking both.
3. Swap test: partners try switching the two explanations. If the paragraph still reads true, the explanations are too vague and need naming "scale" or "experience."
4. Circulate and ask: "Which word in your explanation tells me this is about how many?"

“Read your explanations aloud. Does the report sentence talk about how much or how many? Does the story sentence talk about what it felt like?”

1. Students complete the evidence page: a short story and report on a related theme, with a claim and space for one analytical paragraph using both.

1. Take one piece of evidence and ask: "What does only this one contribute?"