How do you introduce CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) to your students? Fact is, there are many ways, and they all depend on personal teaching styles. Some use class discussion questions to as a CER intro activity to help students develop and support some fun claims. Some use quirky science examples to illustrate CER in real, fun science. And, there are also videos on YouTube for CER too. Unfortunately, these resources still have students sitting at their desks thinking about CER. I like a CER intro activity that gets students out of their seats to practice CER. How do we do that? What’s a fun CER intro activity that allows students to examine some evidence and come to a conclusion using CER?

In August 2017, I posted a question on a Facebook group asking for a good first day activity for the science classroom. One suggestion I got back I’ve used for all my science classes this year. It’s a keeper. The activity gets students to use CER. It is open ended and easily modified. And, most importantly, it is fun and engaging. We outline the activity below. We also provide a handout to a follow up activity for download at the end.

How to Intro CER on First Science Class

I believe every teacher has a getting-to-know you activity at the beginning of the school year. It might be a bingo chart students fill out. Or, it might be an interview. Whatever the activity may be, why not make include some CER right away?

The activity I use does both. Students get to learn about me (which is super important in my books) all the while practicing CER. And, the activity us quite simple to run.

Setup is as follows:

1. Grab 12-20 personal items from home or from around your classroom and put them out on a table. I put out a record player, a zippo lighter, an old Nintendo Gameboy DS, some floppy discs, and a home digital picture printer.

2. Tell students to examine the items. Suggest to students to ask, “why does my teacher have this item? What does this item say about my teacher?”

3. Ask students to take out a sheet or paper and write a paragraph using the CER framework. First, come up with a CLAIM about the teacher. Then, have students provide EVIDENCE for that claim. Emphasize they need to use several items together to support the claim. Finally, have students provide REASONS why the evidence supports the claim. For example, a student could claim that I am sentimental. Students examining my objects could argue that record players, home photo printers, and floppy discs are considered old technology. The only reason I would keep old technology for this long is because it may have a special meaning to me. For example, perhaps the record player reminds me of my childhood.

4. Have students write 2 more claims for a total of 3 claims (and 3 paragraphs).

The Results of my CER Intro Activity

What I had most fun with was introducing each of my items to the students. Many students didn’t know what floppy discs were (one student said they were CD covers). Some students were amazed by the 1st generation Apple digital camera I had. And, the Gameboy was also very popular among students. But, I digress. Let’s talk about how this relates to CER.

From the items I laid out, many of my students mentioned that I was into keeping old things. Some students also claimed that perhaps I was really interested in photography. However, students did struggle to come up with 3 strong claims based on the objects provided.

One suggestion for future sessions is to bring objects of different time periods and different parts of my life. Yes, I put out objects that were different from each other, but they were also similar in theme (all “old school” objects). Next time, maybe I can put out a dance trophy I won, a book that I’m currently reading (old perhaps my favourite), or a movie ticket stub.

Follow up Activity

After students analyze me and the objects I lay out, I have students go home to grab 15 objects from home that represent who they are. And, I have them bring them to school for the next class. Then, I pair students up and have them analyze each other’s items. They must come up with 3 claims as well.

You can collect the pieces or have students read them out in front of the class or both. If a student doesn’t bring any items (or forgets to bring them), have the student open up his backpack or pencil case for analysis. What a student keeps in their backpack can reveal quite a bit regarding what the student is like.

Wrap Up

There are many ways a CER intro activity can be done. This one just happens to hit two birds with one stone. First, students learn about the teacher and each other. And, they also get to practice CER. Also, an added bonus is that they learn a little bit more about each other. I’d say having all three done through a CER intro activity is a big win. To download our handouts to this activity, click on the link below. Thanks for reading, and please share!

Until next time, keep it REAL.

Resources

Handout(s): 27 – CER Intro Activity Handout

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