CER Practice: Claim Evidence Reasoning — Climate Change Coral Bleaching

Description

Understanding bleaching is one thing. Arguing about it — precisely, from evidence — is the skill this activity builds. Students evaluate evidence and construct scientific arguments about a coral bleaching phenomenon: how thermal stress breaks down the symbiosis between coral and algae, and what the evidence does and doesn’t show.

It is a pure CER task, uncluttered by data-production work, which makes it the right tool when the writing itself is the point.

What’s inside

Per the current listing, students evaluate evidence and construct Claim-Evidence-Reasoning arguments about thermal stress and symbiosis breakdown in a coral bleaching phenomenon. The exact component list (evidence sources provided, prompt structure, page count, answer key or rubric) is not enumerated in the current listing and should be confirmed before this section is expanded.

How it runs in class

Assign it as the culminating writing task after students have studied bleaching or worked its data, as a formative check on argumentation mid-unit, or as a stand-alone CER practice on high-interest content. Students who stall on structure benefit from pairing the activity with a CER graphic organizer — claim first, evidence selection second, reasoning last — so the thinking is visible before the paragraph is written. Because the phenomenon is specific and visual, claims stay concrete instead of drifting into generalities about climate change.

Standards alignment

NGSS: HS-LS2-6. Grades 8–12 · Biology, Earth Sciences, Environment.

Read the writing formatively, not just for a grade: the reasoning sentences are a diagnostic. Students who select strong evidence but can’t articulate why it supports the claim need a different intervention than students whose claims outrun their evidence entirely. This activity surfaces both patterns cleanly, which makes the reteach that follows it unusually well-aimed.

Want the data work included? This activity is paired with the data analysis in the Coral Bleaching Data Analysis & CER Mini Bundle. Support writers with the CER graphic organizer, and find free resources in the Free Library.