Quote or paraphrase text evidence to support what a story and a science article state and imply

Learning goal: This lesson teaches Ohio's 2026 standards RL.6.1, RI.6.1 and W.6.9, first implemented in 2027-28. You will cite text evidence to support your analysis of what a literary text states explicitly and what you infer from it, choosing to quote or paraphrase as appropriate. You will analyze text evidence in an informational (scientific) text: what it says explicitly, cited, and what you can infer from it, supported with cited evidence. Then you will use evidence from both texts to support analysis, elaboration, reflection and research in your own writing.

Explicit, inferred and evidence. A text states something explicitly when the words say it directly: "The dough had not moved." You can point to the sentence. An inference is a conclusion the words do not state but that the details support when you add reasoning: if the dough sat by a cold window and did not rise, you can infer that the cold slowed it down. An inference is not a guess. A guess has nothing behind it; an inference has details you can cite and a reason that connects them. Text evidence is the exact detail you use to support either kind of statement, and citing it means showing the reader where it came from, usually with the paragraph number.

Quoting or paraphrasing as appropriate. You can bring evidence into your writing in two ways. A quotation copies the author's exact words inside quotation marks. A paraphrase restates the author's idea in your own words and your own sentence structure. Both must be cited, and both must keep the author's meaning. Neither is always better. Choose by asking one question: do the exact words matter to my point?

Quote when the wording itself is your evidence: a word choice that reveals a feeling, a striking phrase, a definition, or a sentence whose exact claim you are going to analyze. If you say a character is embarrassed because of how she speaks, the reader needs her actual words. Paraphrase when the idea matters more than the wording: a process with several steps, a long explanation, or a set of facts. Copying four sentences about how yeast works would bury your point; a one-sentence paraphrase with a citation keeps it clear. A good writer often does both, quoting one short phrase and paraphrasing the rest.

A paraphrase is not a copy with a few words swapped. "Yeast eats sugar and gives off gas" can paraphrase a longer sentence, but changing produces to makes in an otherwise copied sentence is still copying. A paraphrase also may not add anything the text does not say. If the article says warmth speeds yeast up, you may not paraphrase it as "yeast only works in summer."

The misconception. Many readers think the more they quote, the stronger their evidence. A paragraph that is mostly quotation shows that you found the words, not that you understand them. Evidence is strong when it is the right detail and when you explain how it supports your claim. One short, well-chosen quotation with two sentences of reasoning beats three long quotations with none.

Original story — The Second Rise

(1) On Saturday morning Ana mixed the dough exactly as her grandfather's card said: flour, water, salt, a spoon of honey and a packet of yeast. She covered the bowl and set it on the windowsill, where the light was brightest. "It will be twice as big by lunch," she told her little brother, Rafi, who was already asking when they could eat.

(2) At noon the dough had not moved. It sat in the bowl like a pale stone. Ana pressed a finger into it and felt the cold of the glass beside it. The window had been open a crack all morning; the curtain still swayed.

(3) "Maybe the yeast is broken," Rafi said.

(4) Ana did not answer. She read the card again. Let rise in a warm place. She had read those words at breakfast. She had simply decided that bright meant warm.

(5) Her grandfather came in from the garden and looked at the bowl without saying anything. He shut the window. Then he filled the sink with warm water, not hot, and set the bowl in it.

(6) "You're not going to tell me I did it wrong?" Ana asked.

(7) "The card told you," he said. "I think you already know."

(8) By three o'clock the dough had doubled. Ana punched it down, shaped two loaves and waited for the second rise, checking the water in the sink every half hour. When the bread came out of the oven, Rafi reached for the heel. Ana cut it for him and kept the card in her apron pocket.

Original article — Why Bread Dough Rises

(1) Bread rises because of a living thing. Baker's yeast is a tiny single-celled fungus. When it is mixed into dough, it feeds on sugars and releases carbon dioxide gas. This process is called fermentation.

(2) The gas alone would escape if the dough could not hold it. Wheat flour contains proteins that, when mixed with water and kneaded, form a stretchy network called gluten. Gluten traps the gas in thousands of small bubbles, and the dough swells like a balloon being slowly filled.

(3) Temperature controls the speed of fermentation. In a warm kitchen, yeast produces gas quickly and dough may double in an hour or two. In a cold place, the yeast slows down, and the dough may barely change for hours. Too much heat is a problem in the other direction: very hot water can kill yeast, and dead yeast produces no gas at all.

(4) In the oven, the heat makes the trapped gas expand one last time before the yeast dies and the gluten and starch firm up. That is why a loaf keeps the shape of its bubbles.

Analysis modeled: the story. What the story states explicitly: the dough "had not moved" at noon (paragraph 2), the window "had been open a crack all morning" (paragraph 2), and the card said "Let rise in a warm place" (paragraph 4). Those are facts you can point to. What you can infer: Ana realizes the cold window, not broken yeast, caused the problem. The story never says so. The evidence is that she "did not answer" Rafi, that she "read the card again," and that "she had simply decided that bright meant warm" (paragraph 4). This sentence should be quoted: bright and warm name her exact confusion, and simply decided says she never checked. Coming right after she rereads the card, it reports what she now sees; her silence and her question in paragraph 6 support that reading. You can also infer that the grandfather wants her to own the mistake rather than hear it from him; you could paraphrase his reply in paragraph 7 as "he says the card already explained it and that Ana knows what went wrong," because the idea matters more than his exact wording.

Analysis modeled: the article. The article says explicitly that yeast releases carbon dioxide (paragraph 1), that gluten traps the gas (paragraph 2) and that cold slows fermentation (paragraph 3). A reader can infer something the article never states: a recipe says "warm, not hot" because both extremes cause trouble. That inference combines paragraph 3's two sentences about cold and about very hot water. Paraphrase is appropriate here, because the evidence is a cause-and-effect idea spread over several sentences, not a single striking phrase.

Worked example 1 — an inference about a character, supported by a quotation. Claim: Ana is embarrassed that she misread the recipe. Evidence: she "did not answer" Rafi, and the narrator reports, "She had simply decided that bright meant warm" (paragraph 4). Reasoning: her silence, together with the narration's admission, right after she rereads the card, that she had "simply decided" that bright meant warm, shows she knows the mistake is hers, which is why she asks in paragraph 6 whether her grandfather will say she "did it wrong." Why quote: bright and warm are the exact words she confused, and simply decided shows the decision was an unchecked assumption; a paraphrase such as "she realized her error" would lose both.

Worked example 2 — explicit and inferred information in the article, supported by a paraphrase. Explicit, cited: according to paragraph 3, dough in a cold place "may barely change for hours." Inference: the story's dough failed to rise because of the cold window, not because the yeast was "broken." Evidence, paraphrased: the article explains that cold slows yeast down, and the only thing it names as killing yeast is very hot water (paragraph 3); in the story the same dough doubled once it was warmed (story paragraph 8). Reasoning: dead yeast could not have recovered, so the yeast was alive and simply slowed. Why paraphrase: the evidence is a process stated across two sentences; my own sentence with a citation keeps it short and accurate.

Worked example 3 — evidence used for elaboration and reflection. A weak sentence: "Ana learns a lesson." Elaborated with evidence: "Ana learns to read directions for what they mean, not for what she expects. At breakfast she turns 'warm' into 'bright' (paragraph 4), but by the end she checks 'the water in the sink every half hour' (paragraph 8), a sign that she now pays attention to the condition the card actually named." Elaboration means adding the detail and explanation that develops a point. Reflection with evidence: "I have also read a direction the way I wanted it to read. Like Ana, who kept the card 'in her apron pocket,' I now keep the instructions close until the task is done." The reflection stays tied to a cited detail.

Worked example 4 — evidence used for research. Research question: Why does bread dough rise faster in some kitchens than others? Research note, paraphrased and cited: warm temperatures speed the gas production of yeast, and cold temperatures slow it (article, paragraph 3). Next question the note raises: how warm is too warm? The article says only "very hot water can kill yeast," so a researcher would need another source for a specific temperature rather than inventing one.

Evidence chart (representation task): Make a four-column chart with the headings Claim, Explicit or inferred?, Evidence (quote or paraphrase, with paragraph) and Why this form? Fill two rows for the story and two for the article. At least one row must use a quotation and at least one a paraphrase. In the last column explain, in one sentence, why the exact words did or did not matter.

Paraphrase check: Paraphrase article paragraph 2 in no more than two sentences. Then cover the article, reread your paraphrase and compare. Does it keep the meaning? Did you add anything the paragraph does not say? Did you copy a whole phrase without quotation marks?

Independent performance: Write a paragraph of 200 to 250 words answering: What does Ana understand at the end of the story that she did not understand at the beginning, and how does the science article help explain what happened? Success criteria: (1) a clear claim; (2) at least one explicit detail and at least one inference from the story, each cited by paragraph; (3) at least one quotation and at least one paraphrase, each chosen for a reason you could explain; (4) one sentence of elaboration that develops a point with a further detail; (5) evidence from the article used as research to explain the dough's behavior; (6) a closing reflection connected to a cited detail. Trade with a partner, who marks each piece of evidence Q (quote) or P (paraphrase) and checks every citation against the text.