The 3-Step System I Use to Teach Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning in Middle School

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Reese's or KitKat?

If you ask a middle schooler to tell you which is best, they can do this immediately. But when you ask Why? you often get:


"Because it's good!"

"Because I like it!"

"Because it's the best!"


Most middle schoolers don’t naturally understand how to support their opinions with evidence. Teaching Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) is one of those higher-level skills that sounds simple—but takes serious repetition to master.


I’ve spent years refining how I teach CER to middle schoolers in a way that’s engaging, repeatable, and actually sticks. It’s now a core part of my Structured Writing Workshop, and I break it into three distinct phases that build up both skill and confidence.


Let’s dig into what each step looks like—and how you can make CER writing less painful (and way more powerful) for your students.


Step 1: Start with Relatable Topics

We don’t begin with long articles or complicated texts. Instead, I give them one short piece of evidence—something they can instantly relate to.

For example:

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Inadequate sleep can lead to academic problems, behavior issues, and health problems."

Then I ask them to do something surprisingly tricky:


👉 Write a claim that is based on the evidence—not their personal opinion.


This is harder than it sounds. Middle schoolers love to tell you what they think. But this activity helps retrain their brain to think:

What does the evidence actually say?

We work through a few together:

  • Claim: Sleep is very important for healthy development.

  • Reasoning: Since sleep affects academic performance, it’s important to get enough each night.

I teach them to start their reasoning with the word “Since…” so they can easily connect it back to the evidence.

After modeling it once, we switch things up:

  • I give them the claim, and they go find evidence to support it

  • We move into topics like junk food, screen time, and more—high-interest content makes it stick

The first few attempts aren’t perfect. But I tell them that up front. CER takes repetition, not perfection. The goal is steady growth.


Step 2: Turn It Into a Game

Once they’ve dipped their toes into CER, it’s time to build fluency—and we do that with a fast-paced digital game I built in Google Slides.

Here’s how it works:

  • Students open the file in present mode

  • They pick an emoji to start (they love this!)

  • Clicking the emoji jumps them to a random CER challenge slide

  • Each slide presents a short piece of evidence

  • Students choose or write the matching claim or reasoning

💥 Bonus: I’ve built in a few silly “woohoo” slides where they might have to high-five a neighbor, say something out loud, or draw something goofy. These random bursts of energy keep them engaged and laughing as they work through some genuinely challenging thinking.

They hop around the board, answer each prompt, and start seeing how claims, evidence, and reasoning all work together.

It’s part practice, part celebration.



Step 3: Deepen Understanding with a Hands-On Group Activity

Once they’ve played the game and seen CER in action, we go even deeper with a hands-on puzzle-style group activity.

I prep manila envelopes filled with:

  • Mini essays

  • Labels for claim, evidence, and reasoning

  • Cut-apart sections to mix and match

  • One twist: one of the passages is missing its reasoning

In small groups, students:

  • Match the pieces back together

  • Identify the essay with the missing reasoning

  • Work together to write their own reasoning statement to complete it

Then we display all the group responses anonymously and vote as a class on which piece of reasoning is strongest.

Not only is this incredibly engaging, it also helps students see different ways to explain the same evidence and learn from peers’ writing.





What Makes This System Work

Here’s the thing: this does take time.


But it’s time well spent, because it lays the foundation for every body paragraph they’ll ever write—whether it's in an essay, a constructed response, or a state test.

✔️ We do it in short chunks
✔️ We repeat it often
✔️ We make it fun and collaborative
✔️ We build mastery through routine

I even bring CER into my history class—because once they get it in ELA, it transfers beautifully into other subjects.

If you're overwhelmed by all the writing standards you’re supposed to cover, remember: you don’t have to teach everything all at once. Prioritize what builds the most growth—and CER is a power skill worth teaching well.


🎥 Want to See It in Action?

You can watch how I teach all three CER activities step-by-step in this video:
👉 Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: 3 Steps to Evidence-Based Writing


✏️ Want Done-for-You Resources?

If you'd like to try these same activities in your classroom without starting from scratch, I’ve put together a ready-to-use CER resource pack that includes:

  • The digital scoot game

  • The group sorting activity

  • Editable slides and materials

  • Clear examples and models

🎯 Check it out here: Claim, Evidence, Reasoning Bundle on TPT

Happy writing!

Robin

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