ACER

ACER:
How To Answer Questions With Textual Evidence

Open Ended

Why do we need to provide evidence to support our answers?

The acronym ACER is an easy way to remember how to use evidence to support your answer.

A: Answer the question in a complete sentence
C: Cite evidence with quotations.
E: Explain how your evidence supports your answer.
R: Restate your answer and wRap it up.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following are the steps of ACER in order?

• Analyze, Cite, Explain, Restate

• Answer, Character, Explain, Reach

• Answer, Cite, Explain, Restate

• Answer, Restate, Cite, Explain

Answer

The first step is to answer the question in a complete sentence.
In order to have a complete sentence, you can restate the question. It is a good idea to use the title and author in your response.
If you need more than one sentence to totally answer the question, that is okay!
Your answer is considered your claim.
If the question asks about multiple things, make sure to mention them ALL in your answer.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is a good way to answer this question in a complete sentence?

What is the theme of the novel?

• The theme of the novel "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling is that love triumphs over anything.

• The theme is that love triumphs over anything.

• Love triumphs over anything.

• What is the theme of the novel? The theme of the novel is that love triumphs over anything.

Multiple Choice

If this is the question, what should you make sure that you address in your answer?

How does the symbol of the deer affect the theme?

• What the theme is.

• What the symbol means.

• What the theme is and what the symbol means.

• What the symbol means, what the theme is, and how the symbol affects the theme.

Let's Practice!

On your whiteboard, answer the following question:
What is your favorite genre of music?

Transition Time!

In between each letter of ACER, you should use proper transition words.
After your answer, you're going to cite evidence from the text. Here are some ways to begin your sentence for citing evidence:
- In the text it says...
- Evidence to support this point can be found in this quote: ...
- (Insert author) writes...

Or anything like the above! The point is that you must use transition words to introduce your quote.

Multiple Select

Which of the following are good ways to transiton into citing your evidence?

• In the text it says...

• Evidence to support this can be found in this quote:

• According to the text,

• (Insert author) writes

Cite Evidence

Next, we need to find a quote from the text that supports our answer. This quote MUST be relevant and strong evidence. Make sure that it matches up with what you are arguing.
The best way to cite evidence is through a direct quote. You will use quotation marks and then pull your evidence directly from the text.

Combined with your transition, this step will look like this:
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix it says, "It is your heart that saved you."

Multiple Choice

The following passage is narrated by a character named Holden Caulfield. Select the best evidence to support the statement "Holden thinks that older people are set in their ways and unwilling to change."

She asked me where I went to school now, and I told her Pencey, and she said Pencey was a very good school. Even if I'd wanted to, I wouldn't have had the strength to straighten her out. Besides, if she thought Pencey was a very good school, let her think it. You hate to tell new stuff to somebody around a hundred years old. They don't like to hear it. Then, after a while, I left. It was funny. She yelled "Good luck!" at me the same way old Spencer did when I left Pencey.

From J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. Copyright 1945 by J. D. Salinger

Submit

• "You hate to tell new stuff to somebody around a hundred years old."

• "She yelled "Good luck!" at me the same way old Spencer did when I left Pencey."

• "They don't like to hear it. "

• "Even if I'd wanted to, I wouldn't have had the strength to straighten her out. "

Open Ended

If the question is "How does Holden feel about old people?" How would you use the answer and the quotation in a paragraph?

Answer: "Holden thinks that older people are set in their ways and unwilling to change."

Evidence: "You hate to tell new stuff to somebody around a hundred years old."

Multiple Choice

Consider this claim:

Wikipedia is not a reliable source for academic research.

Which is the strongest evidence to support the claim?

• Wikipedia is a non-profit, which means that any profit it makes is reinvested in the business.

• Information on Wikipedia is not necessarily posted by subject-matter experts.

• Wikipedia is not a print resource; it is only offered online

Open Ended

If the question is "Is Wikipedia a reliable source?" How would you use the answer and the quotation in a paragraph?

Answer: Wikipedia is not a reliable source for academic research.

Evidence: Information on Wikipedia is not necessarily posted by subject-matter experts.

Let's Practice!

On your whiteboard, use the transition and cite evidence steps to elaborate on the question:
What is your favorite genre of music?

Transition Time!

In between each letter of ACER, you should use proper transition words.
After you cite evidence, you will need to transition to explaining evidence. Here are some good ways to do that:
- This quote shows...
- According to this evidence...
- Through this quote the reader can see...
Or something else along those lines.

E: Explain your evidence!

This is where you take all of those great thoughts that you had in your head and put them in words. You must explain why you selected your evidence and prove that it supports your answer.

Sometimes your logic will seem obvious to you, but you MUST still write it down so that your reader can understand.

For example:

The theme of the novel "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling is that love triumphs over anything. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix it says, "It is your heart that saved you." In this quote, the heart represents love. This promotes the idea that love can save us from anything and is almost a direct statement of the theme that J.K. Rowling is trying to address.

It can be a great idea to have more than one piece of evidence. So, if you want to include multiple pieces of evidence, just repeat the C and E steps with another quote! Make sure to use transitions again also.

For example:

The theme of the novel "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling is that love triumphs over anything. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix it says, "It is your heart that saved you." In this quote, the heart represents love. This promotes the idea that love can save us from anything and is almost a direct statement of the theme that J.K. Rowling is trying to address. In addition, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Rowling states "to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” This also shows the value of love as protection and insinuates that love will triumph over evil.

Let's Practice!

On your whiteboard, use the transition and explain evidence to continue your answer to the question: What is your favorite genre of music?

Transition Time!

In between each letter of ACER, you should use proper transition words.
After you explain your evidence, we will transition to the conclusion. Some good words to begin your conclusion are:
- Therefore...
- In conclusion...
- Overall...

Final Step- R: Restate and wRap it up.

This acts as your conclusion. You are restating your point in a different way.

For example:

The theme of the novel "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling is that love triumphs over anything. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix it says, "It is your heart that saved you." In this quote, the heart represents love. This promotes the idea that love can save us from anything and is almost a direct statement of the theme that J.K. Rowling is trying to address. In addition, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Rowling states "to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” This also shows the value of love as protection and insinuates that love will triumph over evil. Therefore, the repetition of the power of love truly emphasizes the theme of the Harry Potter series, which is that love can triumph over all.

Let's Practice

On your whiteboard, practice the transition and restate steps to end our question: What is your favorite genre of music?