Quoting Accurately From a Source

1. Display the beaver passage (written out in the Teach section) and read it aloud once while students follow.
2. Show three quotations a student has used: A) "A single family can build a dam more than 100 meters long" (para. 1). B) "Most dams are more than 100 meters long" (para. 1). C) "Scientists found that frogs, ducks and fish became more common after beavers returned" (para. 3).
3. Pairs check each one word for word against the text and label it accurate or altered.
4. Take answers. A is accurate. B is altered — the text says most dams are "much shorter," so the change reverses the claim. C dropped "who studied one valley," which quietly turns one valley into everywhere.
5. Ask which alteration is more dangerous. Fish for C: it sounds right, so a reader would never check it.

“B is easy to catch because it says the opposite. C is the one that fools people — it sounds exactly like the text and claims something the text never claimed.”

1. Display the passage. (1) Beavers build dams across streams using sticks, mud and stones. A single family can build a dam more than 100 meters long, although most are much shorter. (2) The dam slows the water and creates a pond. Beavers need this deep, still water because their lodges have underwater entrances that keep out predators such as wolves. (3) The pond does not only help beavers. Scientists who studied one valley found that frogs, ducks and fish became more common after beavers returned. The still water also traps soil, which keeps streams downstream cleaner. (4) Not everyone welcomes beavers. When a dam floods a farmer's field or blocks a road drain, the animals can be a costly nuisance.
2. Write the claim: "Beaver ponds help other living things, not just beavers." Think aloud: which paragraph could prove this? Paragraph 3.
3. Write the model: Beaver ponds help other living things. In paragraph 3, the author writes that "frogs, ducks and fish became more common after beavers returned" (para. 3). This shows the pond gave other animals somewhere to live, not only the beavers that built it.
4. Check it in front of the class: put a finger on each word of the quotation in the passage in turn. Point out that a quotation may start mid-sentence, at "frogs," as long as every word is exact.
5. Now add a second quotation to the same paragraph: "Beavers build dams across streams using sticks, mud and stones" (para. 1). Ask: accurate? Yes. Cited? Yes. What does it prove about other living things? Nothing. Cross it out, reread the paragraph, and note that nothing was lost.
6. Model an inference: "Some farmers probably do not want beavers nearby." The text never says this, so quote what it rests on: "When a dam floods a farmer's field … the animals can be a costly nuisance" (para. 4). Show that the ellipsis marks words left out and the meaning has not changed.
7. Write the test on the board and leave it up: What does this quotation prove that my sentence did not?

“It is accurate and it is cited. So what is it doing there? A quotation has one job: to prove the sentence in front of it. If you can delete it and lose nothing, it was decoration.”

1. Give pairs three claims to support from the beaver passage: (a) Beavers build ponds partly for safety. (b) Beaver ponds can make rivers cleaner. (c) Beavers can cause problems for people.
2. Expected quotations: (a) "their lodges have underwater entrances that keep out predators such as wolves" (para. 2); (b) "The still water also traps soil, which keeps streams downstream cleaner" (para. 3); (c) "the animals can be a costly nuisance" (para. 4).
3. Each pair writes claim, quotation, citation and a "This shows…" sentence for all three, then swaps with another pair.
4. The checking pair runs two tests on every quotation: word for word (finger on the text) and necessity (cover the quotation — is the paragraph weaker without it?). A check mark or an X for each.
5. Stop the class once to share a quotation that failed. The usual one: "The dam slows the water and creates a pond" for claim (a). Accurate, cited, and silent about safety.

“Finger on the text, one word at a time. If even one word is different, it is not a quotation — it is your version of one.”

1. Students complete the printable quotation page alone. The passage on the sheet has numbered paragraphs, and every answer must carry a citation.
2. Circulate with one question per desk: "What does this quotation prove?" A student who reads the quotation back instead of answering needs the "This shows…" frame card.

1. Two volunteers each read one claim and quotation from their sheet; the class answers in one sentence: what does it prove?