Explaining a phenomenon

The last two prompts I shared were about creating an informative text about a the excretory system – a topic in my unit about body systems – and generating comprehension questions to guide students through the text. I was pleased with the results, but also wanted to help students connect what they had learned about the excretory system to a familiar phenomenon. So, this is what I asked for:

Describe a phenomenon that will be familiar to students that is related to the function of the excretory system and then provide an explanation about why it happens, drawing on the information that students will have learned from the text.

I placed this additional information after the the comprehension questions about the original text for two reasons: the first was to break the reading into manageable pieces and the second was to ensure that students had a basic understanding of the excretory system before they read about a related phenomenon. You can see the finished product here.

Try the prompt yourself, using details that are specific to your unit. For example:

Describe a phenomenon that will be familiar to grade <grade level> students that is related to <topic> and then provide an explanation about why it happens, drawing on the information that students will have learned from this text: “<insert the text>”.

Did you get a useful result? Do you have any tips for generating a better response? Share your thoughts in the comments.