Quoting an Information Text

1. Display "Honeybees in Winter" with NO paragraph numbers and read it aloud once. Paragraph 1: "Honeybees do not sleep through the winter. When the air turns cold, they stay inside the hive and huddle together in a tight ball called a cluster." Paragraph 2: "The bees in the middle of the cluster shiver their wing muscles without moving their wings. This shivering makes heat. The middle of the cluster can stay as warm as a summer day, even when there is snow outside." Paragraph 3: "The bees take turns. Bees on the cold outside edge slowly move into the middle to warm up, and warm bees move out to take their place." Paragraph 4: "All winter, the cluster eats honey that the bees stored in summer. A strong hive may eat about 30 pounds of honey before spring."
2. Ask: "Where does it say what the bees eat?" Let students describe the place — "near the bottom," "the last bit," "after the turns part." Notice aloud how long it takes the class to agree.
3. Write 1, 2, 3, 4 in the margin together. Ask the same question. "Paragraph 4" settles it in two seconds. That is the reason every answer today names its paragraph: a reader can check it at once.

“Point to where it says what the bees eat. ... That took us a whole minute. Now the paragraphs have numbers — where is it? Paragraph 4. Two seconds. That is what a paragraph number does for the person reading your answer.”

1. Write on the board: "Answer. Quote. Paragraph." Under it, the frame: "My answer is ___. The text says, '___' (paragraph ___)."
2. Ask: "How do honeybees stay warm in winter?" Think aloud: "I find the paragraph FIRST." Run a finger down the text, stop at paragraph 2, and highlight "This shivering makes heat."
3. Write the model: "Honeybees stay warm by shivering to make heat. The text says, 'This shivering makes heat' (paragraph 2)." Underline the answer, color the quotation yellow, circle the 2.
4. Point out that the answer is in the student's own words and the quotation is not. The answer says what you think; the quotation is the proof; the number is the address.
5. Show a broken answer: "Bees take turns in the warm middle. The text says, 'huddle together in a tight ball' (paragraph 3)." Ask: "What is wrong?" Give pairs 30 seconds to check paragraph 3.
6. Fish for two problems: the words are not in paragraph 3 at all (they are in paragraph 1), and they prove huddling, not taking turns. Fix it together: "The text says, 'Bees on the cold outside edge slowly move into the middle to warm up' (paragraph 3)."
7. Name why the mistake happened: the quotation was chosen first and the number added from memory. Finding the paragraph first prevents both errors at once.

“Three parts every time: answer, quotation, paragraph number. Find the paragraph first, then copy the words — never the other way round. If someone cannot check your proof in ten seconds, it is not finished.”

1. Pairs answer three questions on the frame strip: (1) "What is a cluster?" (2) "How warm can the middle of the cluster get?" (3) "Where does the bees' winter food come from?"
2. Answers to look for: (1) "a tight ball" of bees, paragraph 1; (2) "as warm as a summer day," paragraph 2; (3) "honey that the bees stored in summer," paragraph 4.
3. Pairs swap with another pair and check ONE thing: go to the paragraph named and check it off only if the exact words are there. Anything not checked goes back to its owners.
4. Take feedback on question 3. Some pairs will quote "the cluster eats honey." Ask: "Does that say where the honey came from?" Push to "stored in summer" — the words that actually answer the question.
5. Ask which question could be proved with two different quotations. Question 2 could use "makes heat" or "as warm as a summer day"; ask which proves "how warm" more exactly and why.

1. Students complete the printable practice sheet: a new passage with numbered paragraphs and questions, each answered with the three-part frame.
2. Confident students turn the frame strip face down; others keep it on the desk.
3. Circulate checking paragraph numbers only — put a finger on the paragraph named and read for the quotation. A mismatch is the commonest slip and takes ten seconds to catch.

1. Ask: "How much honey might a strong hive eat?" Take answers aloud in all three parts: "About 30 pounds. The text says, 'about 30 pounds of honey' (paragraph 4)."
2. Anyone who gives only "thirty pounds" is asked: "Where is your proof, and where does it live?"