Meet CREEL — Claim-Reason, Evidence, Elaboration, Link

Teacher displays a single Sofia Valdez body-paragraph excerpt; children identify the 4 CREEL bands in it.

• Project the excerpt
• Mark the claim-reason in purple, evidence in blue, elaboration in orange, link in green
• Name each band as you mark

Today you meet CREEL — the four-band routine for persuasive body paragraphs. Every body paragraph defends ONE reason for your thesis. The bands: CLAIM-REASON (purple) — names the paragraph's reason. EVIDENCE (blue) — supplies a fact, quote, statistic, or example proving the reason. ELABORATION (orange) — a sentence explaining HOW/WHY the evidence supports the reason. LINK (green) — ties this paragraph back to the thesis or forward to the next body paragraph. The ELABORATION band is the move G4 writers most often skip — children assume evidence speaks for itself. It doesn't. Watch teacher build a CREEL paragraph for one reason of the winter-recess essay: 'Outdoor recess in winter helps students focus during afternoon lessons. (CLAIM-REASON) A 2018 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that students with at least 20 minutes of outdoor movement after lunch scored 12% higher on afternoon attention tests. (EVIDENCE) When students move their bodies and breathe cold fresh air, their brains receive more oxygen, and they can focus better on reading and math. (ELABORATION) For this reason alone, our school should keep its winter recess. (LINK)'.

• Notice EVIDENCE is a SPECIFIC fact (the 12% figure, the 2018 study). ELABORATION asks 'why does this matter?' and answers it. LINK ties back to the thesis OR forward to body 2.

  model See narrative above — full 4-band paragraph with each band color-coded on the board.

  prompt Teacher models a CREEL paragraph for reason 1 of winter-recess essay.

• What does ELABORATION add that evidence doesn't already do?
• Where in the CREEL paragraph does the LINK appear, and what does it do?

M-4-F-WR-03-A Chart

Reproduction of MG-3 at 11x17: 4 stacked bands (purple/blue/orange/green) with the winter-recess worked example shown beneath, each sentence color-coded to its band. Print-ready, dyslexic-friendly font.

MG-3 Chart Physical / non-image

CREEL body-paragraph anchor chart: a 4-band stacked card — CLAIM-REASON (purple, flag icon — 'this body paragraph's reason for the thesis'), EVIDENCE (blue, magnifying-glass — 'a fact, quote, statistic, or example that proves the reason'), ELABORATION (orange, gear icon — 'a sentence that EXPLAINS how the evidence proves the reason'), LINK (green, arrow — 'a sentence that ties this body paragraph back to the thesis or forward to the next paragraph'). Worked example below: 'Outdoor recess in winter helps students focus during afternoon lessons. (CLAIM-REASON) A 2018 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that students who had at least 20 minutes of outdoor movement after lunch scored 12% higher on afternoon attention tests. (EVIDENCE) When students move their bodies and breathe cold fresh air, their brains receive more oxygen, and they can focus better on reading and math. (ELABORATION) For this reason alone, our school should keep its winter recess. (LINK)' Print-ready 11x17.

• Use the color-coded sentence-strip kit (purple, blue, orange, green) to build body paragraph 1 for YOUR thesis. Write each band on its colored strip, then transcribe onto paper.

  scaffold MG-3 anchor; sentence-strip kit per pair
• Share with partner. Partner names each band by color.

  scaffold Sentence frame: 'Your claim-reason is ___. Your evidence is ___. Your elaboration is ___. Your link is ___.'

M-4-F-WR-03-B Illustration

Reference image of a Grade-4 CREEL paragraph (handwritten) on a topic 'school lunches should include locally grown food' with each sentence underlined in its band color (purple/blue/orange/green) and margin notes naming each band. Print-ready 8.5x11.

• Color-annotate your body paragraph 1 with the 4 colors.
• Move status-tile to ELABORATE or DRAFT.

• Star your strongest band.
• Predict: tomorrow we meet Tier-2 Set 9 vocabulary.

• At home tonight, take ONE evidence from any source (a book, a website, a family member's story). Write one CREEL paragraph using it. Bring it tomorrow.