Gathering Evidence Well

Overview

In Lesson 18 of the 24-lesson unit Auckland: Sustainable New Home, students move from forming an inquiry question to gathering reliable evidence. They practise recording source details, paraphrasing information accurately, and organising evidence in an evidence table related to Auckland’s sustainable housing, transport, water, or community design.

Learning intentions

• WALT gather relevant evidence from approved sources.
• WALT record source details so research can be credited.
• WALT paraphrase ideas without copying the original wording.
• WALT organise evidence so it helps answer an inquiry question.

Success criteria

• I can record the title, creator, date and type of a source.
• I can explain an idea in my own words without changing its meaning.
• I can link each piece of evidence to my inquiry question.
• I can identify a limitation or gap in the evidence.

Curriculum links

• Social Sciences Years 9–10: analysing data and sources, making decisions, and evaluating significant challenges.
• Social Sciences Years 9–10: understanding how places change and how societies function and change in a globalised world.
• Social Sciences Years 9–10: exploring inequality, ethics, power, governance and human rights in complex contexts.
• Social Sciences Years 0–10: using civic, geographic, historical and economic knowledge to participate in communities and the wider world.

Lesson structure (70 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Reconnect and hook. Teacher opens the introduction and hook slides and displays the question, “If Auckland built a sustainable new neighbourhood, what evidence would decision-makers need?” Students recall their inquiry question from earlier lessons, discuss one possible answer with a partner, and share what would make evidence useful or trustworthy.

2. 7–17 min · Model source reading. Teacher demonstrates how to inspect one short source about an Auckland sustainability issue, thinking aloud while recording the source title, creator, date, source type and relevant idea on the source-analysis modelling slides. Students help identify the main idea, distinguish evidence from opinion, and suggest a paraphrase before comparing it with the original wording.

3. 17–27 min · Teach paraphrasing and linking. Teacher explicitly models the process: read, cover the source, explain the meaning aloud, write key words, then check accuracy; introduce sentence frames such as “This source suggests that…” and “This matters to my question because…”. Students practise orally in pairs using a short extract, then write one paraphrase and highlight the words that are their own.

4. 27–32 min · Explain the research task. Teacher introduces the evidence-table headings on the evidence table and paraphrasing worksheet and reviews expectations for using the source pack or teacher-approved digital sources. Students choose a source connected to their inquiry question and underline or note the specific information they intend to use.

5. 32–55 min · Independent and supported research. Teacher circulates for brief check-ins, prompting students to ask, “What does this tell me about my question?” and “How do I know?”; provide curated sources, audio or visual choices, vocabulary support and a teacher conference for students who need them. Students complete at least three evidence-table entries, including source details, a concise paraphrase, a link to their question, and whether the evidence is a fact, statistic, expert view or example.

6. 55–64 min · Evidence partner check. Teacher displays the checking prompts on the peer-review and discussion slides and assigns pairs to review one another’s entries respectfully. Students check whether each entry includes enough source detail, is genuinely paraphrased, clearly links to the inquiry question, and identifies a possible bias, limitation or missing perspective.

7. 64–70 min · Plenary and exit reflection. Teacher returns to the plenary and exit-question slides and asks students to complete a brief reflection on their worksheet: “My strongest evidence is… because…” and “One gap or limitation is…”. Students share one useful research decision with a partner and submit their evidence table for a formative check.

Resources

• the full 70-minute teaching deck
• the evidence table and paraphrasing worksheet
• Auckland: Sustainable New Home source pack
• Teacher-approved websites, reports, maps, infographics or short videos
• Devices and headphones, where available
• Projector or interactive display
• Highlighters or coloured pencils
• Bilingual dictionaries and subject vocabulary list
• Inquiry questions from the previous lesson

Assessment

• During modelling and pair practice, listen for students distinguishing an author’s idea from their own opinion and check oral paraphrases before students write.
• During research, use the evidence table and brief conferences to assess source recording, relevance, paraphrasing and links to the inquiry question.
• Collect the worksheet and exit reflection. Look especially for copied wording, missing source details and unsupported claims to address next lesson.

Differentiation

• Provide a curated set of short, levelled sources with clear headings, images, graphs and audio or video alternatives. Allow students to work with a printed source, read-aloud support or headphones.
• For English language learners, pre-teach essential vocabulary such as sustainable, evidence, source, reliable, impact, community and limitation. Use visuals, bilingual dictionaries, word banks and sentence frames; rehearse ideas orally before writing.
• For students needing writing support, provide a partially completed example, chunk the worksheet into one source at a time, permit speech-to-text, and conference at the beginning and midpoint. Emphasise ELLPs reading and writing progress through locating key information, organising notes and expressing meaning in their own words.
• Support listening, speaking and visual language development by reading extracts aloud, discussing meaning with a partner, allowing students to explain evidence orally, and asking them to interpret photographs, maps, graphs and layout features before writing.
• Offer quiet seating, enlarged text, reduced source quantity or an adult check-in for students with additional learning needs. Encourage Pasefika and Bengali learners to connect sustainable housing and community decisions with knowledge, experiences and perspectives from their whānau and communities.

Extension

• Students compare two sources about the same issue and explain how their purposes, creators or evidence differ.
• Students identify a significant limitation or gap, such as an absent community voice, outdated information, unclear method or missing data, then write a research question that could address it.
• Advanced learners rank their three strongest pieces of evidence and justify which would be most persuasive to a local decision-maker.