Writing Explanations with Justification

Writing Explanations with Justification Scroll Down for Ideas

Link to The Big Book of Literacy Tasks

Helping Students Write Justifications

Students can back up what they are explaining with a justification.

It is important for students to 'back up' their thinking with a justification as they become an expert on a topic.

Encourage students to write explanatory reports about something they are passionate about.

Have students use sticky notes to mark pages in texts or books in order to come back to that spot to add in a quote or a reference.

Students can share what they learned and where they learned it in a justification.

Maybe the student might write, "I know penguins swim because on page 11 of the Book of Penguins it shows the penguin swimming."

Maybe students want to write all about how video is the new way that people are connecting together based on what is occurring in social media. They will probably first explain their idea, and provide an example, but to develop authority on the subject, they need to justify their answer with some information. For example, they could write about how they listened to a podcast on video usage for communication.

That reference to the podcast would be the justification.

In The Big Book of Literacy Tasks, I share tips and ideas for writing explanations and justifications.

Appreciate

Credits:

Created with images by rawpixel - "untitled image" • Santi Vedrí - "untitled image" • Thought Catalog - "Taking notes with a pencil" • Sticker Mule - "When Your Internet is Down" • stux - "colored pencils colour pencils star color circle" • Alice Moore - "pink music" • picjumbo_com - "child kid play"