Teacher Commentary
Now students are moving into making arguments. They are making a claim. As they support the claim with quotes from the text, those quotes (or paraphrases) become textual evidence. When they explain how the evidence is connected to the claim, how it supports their claim, they are articulating their historical reasoning.

Prompts to elicit student thinking in this discussion include:

• What is your claim?
• How do you know?
  • What evidence supports your claim?
  • How is that evidence connected to your claim?
  • Explain the connection.
  • Explain your reasoning.