Worksheet

Phones in Class: How Strong Is the Case?

Evaluate an argument about classroom phone restrictions by tracing reasons, testing evidence, and identifying unsupported claims.

Grade 6ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toRI.6.8

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Single worksheet
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1 Common Core standard
Printable answer key
13 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 6
Subject: ELA
Question types: Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students trace how reasons and evidence support an author's argument.
Students distinguish supported claims from unsupported claims.
Students evaluate whether evidence justifies the scope of a conclusion.

How to use

Have students read the fictional argument independently and mark claims and evidence. Discuss the limits of the evidence before students write their evaluations.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

RI.6.8

Trace and evaluate an argument, separating claims backed by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.

Preview

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Name Date

Phones in Class: How Strong Is the Case?

Trace the argument and test its support.

Trace the Argument

Read the article about a fictional school. Use only the information provided to evaluate its argument.

A Boundary, Not a Blackout

1At Brookstone Middle School, a phone can be a calculator, a connection to home, or an invitation to stop listening. The school is considering a ban on personal phone use during classroom instruction. Students would silence and store phones in backpacks, with exceptions for approved learning activities and individual medical needs. This limited restriction deserves a one-month trial before the school decides whether to keep it.

2Protecting attention is the strongest reason for a trial. During four lessons, a teacher recorded 18 interruptions involving phones, including buzzing alerts and students showing one another messages. During four later lessons with phones stored, the teacher recorded six such interruptions. Both sets of lessons lasted the same amount of time. These records suggest that putting phones away may reduce phone-related interruptions, although they do not show what happened in other classrooms.

3A restriction could also reduce disputes about when checking a phone is acceptable. In written feedback, three teachers described disagreements with students over whether a quick glance counted as phone use. A shared storage rule would give teachers and students a clearer boundary. However, the school has not yet measured whether that boundary would actually reduce disagreements or simply create different ones.

4Families have a reasonable concern about urgent messages. The school office already accepts family calls and delivers urgent messages to classrooms. During a practice exercise, office staff delivered five test messages before the next class period began. That exercise suggests an alternative contact route exists, but it does not establish how quickly every real emergency message would arrive. The school should explain the contact procedure before any trial begins.

5Some supporters go further, predicting that storing phones will raise every student's grades. The interruption records cannot establish that result. No grades were collected, and the lessons may have differed in difficulty or student interest. Fewer interruptions could make learning easier, but a grade increase would require separate evidence. A useful policy does not need an exaggerated promise.

6During the trial, teachers should record interruptions, students should report whether they can follow lessons more easily, and office staff should track urgent-message delivery. The school should also ask whether the exceptions work as intended. Those records would provide a stronger basis for a decision than either enthusiasm or frustration alone.

Which statement best expresses the author's main claim?

A. The school should remove personal phones from campus for the full school day.
B. The school should let each teacher create a separate classroom phone policy.
C. The school should test a limited classroom phone restriction before adopting it.
D. The school should delay phone restrictions until it can promise higher grades.

Which detail best supports the author's recommendation to test the restriction rather than adopt it permanently right away?

A. The interruption records do not show what happened in other classrooms.
B. The proposed restriction includes exceptions for approved learning activities.
C. Personal phones can serve as calculators or connections to home.
D. The school office already accepts phone calls from students' families.

Which conclusion is most directly supported by the teacher's records in paragraph 2?

A. Students learned more material during the lessons with phones stored.
B. Phone-related interruptions decreased in the later set of observed lessons.
C. Students preferred the lessons that required them to store their phones.
D. Putting phones away reduced interruptions in classrooms across the school.

Underline the sentence from paragraph 2 that reports the lower interruption count in the later lessons.

Protecting attention is the strongest reason for a trial.During four lessons, a teacher recorded 18 interruptions involving phones, including buzzing alerts and students showing one another messages.During four later lessons with phones stored, the teacher recorded six such interruptions.Both sets of lessons lasted the same amount of time.

How does the author respond to families' concern about urgent messages?

A. By arguing that classroom attention matters more than receiving family messages.
B. By proposing that students check messages at regular intervals during instruction.
C. By claiming that the practice exercise proves emergency messages arrive quickly.
D. By identifying an existing contact route while acknowledging uncertainty about its speed.

Which sentence provides evidence that families already have a contact route other than students' personal phones?

A. “Families have a reasonable concern about urgent messages.”
B. “The school office already accepts family calls and delivers urgent messages to classrooms.”
C. “The school should explain the contact procedure before any trial begins.”
D. “The school should also ask whether the exceptions work as intended.”

Evaluate the Support

Distinguish what the evidence establishes from what remains uncertain. Support written answers with details from the article.

Which claim reported in the article goes beyond the available evidence?

A. Three teachers reported disagreements about what counts as phone use.
B. The office delivered five test messages during a practice exercise.
C. Storing phones during instruction will raise every student's grades.
D. One teacher recorded fewer interruptions in later lessons with phones stored.

Which additional evidence would be most relevant to evaluating the prediction about grades in paragraph 5?

A. Grade results from comparable classes with and without the phone restriction.
B. A survey asking families which phone features they use most frequently.
C. An inventory of the places where students could store personal phones.
D. Office records showing how many family calls arrive during each period.

Why is the evidence in paragraph 3 insufficient to establish that the proposed rule will reduce disagreements?

A. The teachers described phone alerts rather than disputes about phone use.
B. The feedback came from students instead of the teachers enforcing rules.
C. The feedback measured disagreements under two different storage policies.
D. The reports describe an existing problem, not results under the proposed rule.

10.

Underline the sentence from paragraph 3 that explicitly identifies the missing evidence about disagreements.

A restriction could also reduce disputes about when checking a phone is acceptable.In written feedback, three teachers described disagreements with students over whether a quick glance counted as phone use.A shared storage rule would give teachers and students a clearer boundary.However, the school has not yet measured whether that boundary would actually reduce disagreements or simply create different ones.

11.

Sort each claim by whether the article provides evidence that establishes it. A prediction is not established just because it sounds reasonable.

Every real emergency message will arrive before the next class period.The proposed storage rule will reduce disagreements about phone use.Phone-related interruptions occurred in the observed lessons even with phones stored.Three teachers described disagreements about students checking phones.

Established by evidence	Not yet established

12.

Evaluate the interruption records as support for the proposed trial. Explain one strength and one limitation of this evidence.

13.

A reader concludes, “The practice exercise proves that families do not need to worry about urgent-message delivery.” Revise this conclusion so it matches the evidence, and explain why your revision is more accurate.