EBR - Evidence Based Reading and Writing Lesson
Evidence Based Reading and Writing
The reading section of the SAT will challenge students with a carefully constructed assessment of comprehension and reasoning skills with a focus on difficult passages in a wide array of subject areas. Students can expect to see passages from important U.S. documents, as well as famous speeches by people like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. Students must show a command of textual evidence by identifying the part of the text that best serves as evidence to the question. Reading actively will help you to accomplish this goal!
In order to be a good reader, you need to understand a writer's ideas and evaluate the evidence he or she has used to communicate that message effectively. The Evidence Based Reading and Writing section of the SAT will ask students to think critically about the evidence presented in passages. They will have to go beyond showing they understand an author's point. Students will be required to identify and analyze the specific evidence the writer uses to make that point.
A very common question that students will see on the reading section of the SAT consists of a pair of related questions: the first question asks students to demonstrate comprehension of the passage, while the second question asks students which portion of the passage provides the best textual evidence for the answer to the first question.
For example, let's look at the following passage:
Plastic pollution is globally distributed across all oceans
due to its properties of buoyancy and durability, and the
absorption of toxicants by plastic while traveling through the
environment has led some researchers to claim that synthetic
Line 5 polymers in the ocean should be regarded as hazardous
waste. Through photodegradation and other weathering
processes, plastics fragment and disperse in the ocean,
converging in the subtropical gyres.* Accumulation of plastic
pollution also occurs in closed bays, gulfs and seas
10 surrounded by densely populated coastlines and watersheds.
Despite oceanographic model predictions of where debris
might converge, estimates of regional and global abundance
and weight of floating plastics have been limited to
microplastics less than 5 mm. Using extensive published and
15 new data, particularly from the Southern Hemisphere
subtropical gyres and marine areas adjacent to populated
regions corrected for wind-driven vertical mixing, we
populated an oceanographic model of debris distribution to
estimate global distribution and count and weight densities of
20 plastic pollution in all sampled size classes.
Plastics of all sizes were found in all ocean regions,
converging in accumulation zones in the subtropical gyres,
including southern hemisphere gyres where coastal
population density is much lower than in the northern
25 hemisphere. While this shows that plastic pollution has
spread throughout all the world's oceans, the comparison of
size classes and weight relationships suggests that during
fragmentation plastics are lost from the sea surface.
The observations that there is much less microplastic at
30 the sea surface than might be expected suggests that removal
processes are at play. These include UV degradation,
biodegradation, ingestion by organisms, decreased buoyancy
due to fouling organisms, entrainment in settling detritus, and
beaching. Fragmentation rates of already brittle microplastics
35 may be very high, rapidly breaking small microplastics
further down into ever smaller particles, making them
unavailable for our nets (0.33 mm mesh opening). Many
recent studies also demonstrate that many more organisms
ingest small plastic particles than previously thought, either
40 directly or indirectly, i.e. via their prey organisms.
Beginning of reading passage footnotes.
* In oceanography, a "gyre" refers to a large system of rotating ocean currents.
Now, let's look at an example of related questions:
The main contrast that the author draws between this study and previous studies of plastic pollution is that this study
A. used samples of plastic pollution from all over the world.
B. explored the physical processes involved in plastic degradation.
C. estimated the distribution of larger classes of plastics.
D. focused on plastic accumulation in subtropical regions of the globe.
Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
Please choose from one of the following options.
A. lines 8-10 ("Accumulation . . . watershed")
B. lines 11-14 ("Despite . . . 5 mm")
C. lines 29-31 ("The . . . play")
D. lines 37-40 ("Many . . . organisms")
The answer to the first question is C. Did you get it correct? In paragraph 2, the author indicates that previous estimates of plastic distribution have been limited to microplastics less than 5 mm in length. Lines 11-14 provide the most support to this answer. Therefore, B is the answer to the second question.
The Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section may also ask students to determine an author's purpose. For example, look at FDR's famous Infamy Speech Links to an external site.. Take the time to read through the speech.
Question: Why do you think FDR chose to write these four sentences:
"Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island."
Instead, Roosevelt could have just written one sentence: Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, and Wake Island.
Roosevelt breaks the common writing rule of being concise in order to be repetitive. What is the effect repetition has on an audience? He uses the rhetorical device of repetition in order to convince his audience of his points and to be more persuasive. Okay, now find the part of the passage that tells us his purpose and goal is to persuade his audience. Did you find it?
"I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."
Reading History-Based Passages
Reading: History and social studies How-to Part 1: Watch Sal work through Part 1 of an SAT Reading: History and social studies passage:
Reading History Questions
Reading: History and social studies How-to Part 2: Watch Sal work through Part 2 of an SAT Reading: History and social studies passage:
Reading Science Passages
Reading: Science How-to Part 1: Watch Sal work through Part 1 of an SAT Reading: Science passage:
Reading Science Questions
Reading: Science How-to Part 2: Watch Sal work through Part 2 of an SAT Reading: Science passage:
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