Reading for Evidence, Quill's reading and writing tool, is designed to support students in building both language and reading skills. Students read a nonfiction text and build their comprehension by completing open-ended writing stems and supporting a claim with evidence from the text. Designed for students in 6th-8th grade and 8th-12th grade, each activity takes 15-20 minutes to complete. Activities are relevant to ELA, social studies, and science, with a particular focus on 21st-century real-world issues.

In each Reading for Evidence activity, students are prompted to read the text, highlight sentences about a key idea, and finally, complete writing stems using joining words. Depending on the activity’s focus, students will write three sentences using because, but, and so (Cause, Contrast & Consequence), or two sentences using because and but (Cause & Contrast) or because and so (Cause & Consequence). As students submit responses, Quill provides targeted feedback to coach students through improving the accuracy and specificity of their evidence, refining their logic and syntax, and correcting any grammatical or mechanical errors. Students have up to five attempts to complete each writing stem and earn credit once they meet the Target Skill, even if their response still has grammatical or mechanical errors.

When students begin a Quill Reading for Evidence activity, they will see two onboarding pages embedded within the activity. These pages introduce students to the activity and provide important information about completing their work. Students will see these pages every time they begin a Reading for Evidence activity.

The first page, “Here’s what you’ll do,” explains the steps students will follow: read and highlight a text, write sentences using evidence from the text, and revise their sentences based on feedback. Students will click Got it to continue.

The second page, “Good to know,” provides additional information about completing the activity. Students receive specific, targeted feedback on their responses and have up to five attempts to complete each writing stem. Students earn credit once they meet the Target Skill, even if their response still contains grammatical or mechanical errors.

This page also reminds students that feedback is generated by AI and may not always be correct. If students receive incorrect feedback, they can click Report a problem to let Quill know.

Students will click Start to begin the Reading for Evidence activity.

After students click Start, they will see directions to read the passage and highlight two sentences related to a specific key idea. Then, students will click the Got it button to read the passage.

After clicking Got it, the blurred text will become clear.

Once students have read the whole passage, they will see that the Read the entire text step will be checked.

If a student tells you that they cannot click the Done button, then they most likely have not yet read and scrolled through the whole passage.

To highlight a sentence in the text, students will click on the sentence in the passage. The sentences that students highlight will appear highlighted in the passage, as well as on the right side of the page within the Highlights section.

Once students have highlighted two sentences in the passage, they will click the Done button.

Then, they will click the Next button.

After students have read and highlighted the passage, they will see the list of steps with the first step checked off. Students will click the Next button to begin completing the first writing stem.

Students will now be in the heart of the Reading for Evidence activity. They will see the passage on the left side of the page and the writing stem on the right side of the page.

To complete a writing stem, students will click in the text box. Then, when they are ready to submit their response, they will click the Get feedback button. Just as when they are completing other Quill activities, students will receive targeted feedback for each response that they submit. Quill will first provide feedback on the accuracy and relevance of the evidence that the student used in their response, the use of the conjunction, the quality of paraphrasing (Quill discourages plagiarism.), and the use of opinion (Quill encourages students to only use textual evidence.). Then, students will get feedback on grammatical or mechanical errors.

As much as possible, Quill's feedback will guide the students to make a revision without directly telling them what to do. However, please note that scaffolds will be integrated into the feedback for students if they are struggling. For example, if students are having trouble identifying a relevant piece of evidence, a section of the passage will be highlighted for the student to re-read.

In addition, students can select "See example."

This expands a box that demonstrates an example of the skill students are practicing.

If students do not submit a correct, evidence-based response by the fifth attempt, they will see examples of strong responses submitted by other students.

If students do submit a correct, evidence-based sentence by the fifth attempt, they will see a green box with a checkmark.

After students complete the last sentence stem, they will be brought to a reflection page celebrating their efforts. They will also see their final revisions alongside exemplar responses for each stem (2 exemplars per stem) — three revisions for Cause, Contrast & Consequence activities, and two revisions for Cause & Contrast or Cause & Consequence activities. This is a great page to leverage for class discussion!

Following the reflection page, students can also complete an optional emoji survey on what they thought of the activity. The Quill Team reviews students' responses and revises activities accordingly, so please encourage your students to complete these surveys!

After students reflect on their work and complete the optional survey, they’ll be taken to a page where they can see their score for the activity and an explanation of how scoring works for Reading for Evidence activities. Students earn full credit once they meet the Target Skill, even if their response still contains grammatical or mechanical errors.

Please click here to see Teacher Center resources to support your implementation of Reading for Evidence.

Please feel free to message us through the green message bubble on the bottom right corner of the screen or email us at support@quill.org.