Invasive Species Passage and CER Response
Use this European green crab passage and response page for practice reading and writing.
This is another free resource for teachers and homeschool families from The Curriculum Corner.
Reading Passage
This reading passage about the European green crab was written for intermediate level students. It was designed to be used as a passage for practicing annotations.
In my class, I used this as an assessment of work we had done throughout the year. We had spent time working on how to annotate and understand informational text. I wanted to have evidence of the growth I had seen during class. This was a way to see if students could transfer what we had completed together to independent work.
As with many tasks, some students did their best and others had to be pushed a little. After many had finished their first read and notetaking, I told everyone to go back through and see if they could add any additional notes. It did help to show students some examples from our past work. This was a good reminder of what the expectation was.
European Green Crabs
This topic fit our science class perfectly. We were studying ecosystems. One focus was invasive species and the impact they have on an ecosystem. It also was a perfect reading topic after we had learned about the intertidal zone. This ended up being a high interest topic that made students think.
When writing the passage, I tried to include words students might not be familiar with. One word that stood out was ballast water. As much as students wanted to know, I did not help them figure out the meaning during the first couple of read-throughs. Afterwards, I pointed out that knowing the meaning of the word did not impact their ability to understand and respond to the passage. Of course, we did then talk about the true meaning of the word so students would know if they ever encountered it in the future.
Claim, Evidence, Reasoning Planning
Once students had read, we talked about the question. Something new we later practiced in my class was annotating a question. This would have been a great addition to this lesson.
This became a good task to practice forming a CER response. It fit our focus in science well – ecosystems. One of our goals was for students to reflect on how removing one part of an ecosystem could impact the entire food web. This fit perfectly!
Before students worked through the steps, I shared a few videos I had found describing the impact the European Green Crab is having on different beaches across the country. This was good for building background information and helped hook students into the topic.
I wanted everyone to write their own claim. However, before they were given time to do this, we shared what a claim could look like. I emphasized that the claim has the answer to the question but not the evidence or the why.
Throughout the year, we discussed that scientific writing does not use personal pronouns. The point of this writing exercise was not to share “I think” or “I believe”. Instead, students were to write a conclusion based on the evidence. Over and over, we discussed how the CER response would be worded without the use of “I”.
Next, I had students find their evidence in the text. This evidence had to fit their answers.
Finally, students explained why the evidence fit their claim. This first page was all planning. Students were not writing their entire response on the planning page. This can often be a challenge!
Response
Once students had completed their planning, it was time for the final response. We talked about the checklist at the bottom of the page before students began writing.
Waiting to begin was hard for some – so many think they know what they are doing and want to jump in. I was very strict about pencils being down and waiting until we had discussed directions.
I also had students go through the checklist when they finished. I gave each response a quick glance before the final piece was turned in.
You can download your free copy of this passage and writing response by clicking on the green apples below:
This is a free resource for teachers and homeschool families. It may be used in classrooms and homes. You may not sell or modify and sell the materials in any way.