Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Pre-assessment Turn and talk to your partner about what you Notes to Build Next
can use to infer while reading poems. Lesson
Select the Poems -Compass by Georgia
Materials Dinosaurs, Charles Malam Heard
Garden Hose, Beatrice Janosco -Paper Clips by Rebecca
The Tortoise, Douglas Florian Kai Doltlich
What in the World?, Eve Merriam Poems in Ubiquitous and
Songs of the Water
Boatman by Joyce
Sidman are good choices
to use without giving
students titles of poems
Name the A strategy readers use is called making Additional lessons can be
Strategy Explain inferences. An inference is something that is taught using different
probably true. The author doesn’t tell us genres. This will show
everything. We can take evidence from the students that we infer
“I have noticed that …”
text and combine it with what we already with all genres.
know and say, “This is probably true.” That is
“A strategy readers
an inference.
use is …”
thinking.
Provide Guided Place a second poem on the document camera. A few poems are
Practice Read it through once or twice. provided in this unit of
study. Students can
Invite the students to
Guide students in finding/underlining the underline evidence in the
practice the strategy
evidence that help them infer what the poem text that supports their
with teacher guidance.
is about or the message of the poem thinking and write their
inference and explanation
in the boxes provided.
Name __________________________________________
Date _________________________________
Name _________________________________________
Date _________________________________
On my back.
______________
It’s hard ______________
And guards ______________
Me from attack.
______________
Or if I wheeze,
Or sneeze,
______________
Or cough, ______________
The shell I dwell in ______________
Won’t fall off.
Name __________________________________________
Date _________________________________
______________
In the grey evening
______________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
______________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__
Name _______________________________________________
Date _________________________________
______________
______________
I’m inferring, _____________________________________________
_______________________________________
__
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Name__________________________________________
Date _________________________________
______________
______________
______________
______________
______________
______________
______________
______________
______________
______________
______________
______________
I’m inferring, _____________________________________________
_________________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
©Teachers For Teachers in Collaboration with Marcia Uretsky. 50
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Pre-assessment Turn and talk to your partner about how you Notes to Build Next
would infer about a character. Lesson
Select the “A Play” from Childtimes, Eloise Greenfield Other Texts:
Materials Stories from Every Living
Anchor Chart- Two Column Chart for Making Thing, Cynthia Rylant
Inferences- Quote from Text/ My Inference Excerpts from Hey
World Here I Am, Jean
Little
Name the We can infer how a character probably feels,
Strategy Explain. what a character may be thinking, or what a
character may do by using information from
the text and what we know about those
“I have noticed that …”
situations from our own life (our schema).
“A strategy readers
Place the text on an overhead or under the
use is …”
document camera. You may decide to also give
students copies of the text to read along
with you.
Introduce the Text
Practice
Remind students
before they go off to
read … “When you go to
RW, try …”
Conference Points § Did you make any inferences in your
reading today?
§ What are you thinking?
§ What makes you think that?
A Play
by
Eloise Greenfield
When I was in the fifth grade, I was famous for a whole day, and all because
of a play. The teacher had given me a big part, and I didn’t want it. I liked to be in
plays where I could be part of a group, like being one of the talking trees, or
dancing or singing in the glee club. But having to talk by myself ---uh uh!
I used to slide down in my chair and stare at my desk while the teacher was
giving out the parts, so she wouldn’t pay any attention to me, but this time it didn’t
work. She called on me anyway. I told her I didn’t want to do it, but she said I had
to. I guess she thought it would be good for me.
On the day of the play, I didn’t make any mistakes. I remembered all of my
lines. Only—nobody in the audience heard me. I couldn’t make my voice come out
loud.
For the rest of the day, I was famous. Children passing by my classroom
door, children on the playground at lunchtime, kept pointing at me saying, “That’s
that girl! That’s the one who didn’t talk loud enough!”
I felt so bad, I wanted to go home. But one good thing came out of it all. The
teacher was so angry, so upset, she told me that as long as I was in that school, I’d
never have another chance to ruin one of her plays. And that was such good news, I
could stand being famous for a day.
Name __________________________________
Date:___________
Pre-assessment Turn and talk to your partner and tell Notes to Build Next
them everything you know about finding Lesson
the theme of a text. What is a theme?
How do you figure out the theme?
Select the “The Hippopotamus at Dinner” from It is helpful to “white out”
Materials Fables, Arnold Lobel the moral from the bottom
of the text.
Name the Authors sometimes write to teach us
Strategy Explain something or to send us a message.
Readers often finish a book and are left
thinking and wondering why the author
“I have noticed that …”
wrote the story. When readers draw
conclusions or think about the theme of a
“A strategy readers
story, they are making inferences. They
use is …”
are using their schema, the pictures and
the words (evidence) to infer the theme
Introduce the Text.
or lesson of the story. Let me show you
how.
Compassion Courage
Responsibility
Common Conflicts
Internal: Man vs. Self
External: Man vs. Society, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Supernatural
Name___________________________ Date______________
Title __________________________________________________________
Theme ___________________________________________________
Evidence Explanation
Name the Readers notice when they read a word and they are
Strategy Explain unsure of its meaning. They stop and think about what
they can do to help themselves figure out the meaning
of the unknown word. When the text is informational,
“I have noticed that …”
it helps to think about what you know about the topic
and the features of the genre. In informational text
“A strategy readers
authors explain the meaning of an unfamiliar words in a
use is …”
variety of different ways:
1. The word is defined in the glossary
Introduce the Text
2. The word is defined in the sentence
3. The reader can infer the meaning of the word
by using the context clues
4. The word is not defined and the reader needs
to use an additional resource.
Provide Guided Decide at what point the students should join in and
Practice identify words they do not understand. Ask for a few
ideas on the meaning of the unknown word and have the
Invite the students to
students’ share how they figured out the meaning.
practice the strategy
(What clues or features from the text made them
with teacher guidance.
think that? What from their schema makes them think
their inference is probably true?)
Did anyone come across a word they did not know today
in Reader’s workshop? How did you figure it out?
Five Dollars
by Jean Little
I’ll have to put five dollars back sometime when she has enough
money she won’t notice. But five dollars! There are always so many
places to spend five dollars.
I’ll tell her tonight. She’ll understand. It’s nothing really. We’ll
both laugh about it once it’s done. Oh, I wish it was over!
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Pre-assessment Turn and talk to your partner about what you know Notes to Build
about drawing conclusions. Next Lesson
Select the Materials Ya Wanna Know IGUANA? Ranger Rick Magazine,
Ellen Lambeth
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Inference: ________________________________
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Pre-assessment Turn and talk to your partner about what you know Notes to Build
about an author’s intent. Next Lesson
Select the Text: “About Old People” from Hey World, Here I
Materials Am!, Jean Little
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Inference: _______________________________________________
Text 1
evidence
Same
evidence
Text 2
evidence
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Text 1
evidence
Same
evidence
Text 2
evidence
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
What are text sets? Text sets are collections of resources from different
genre, media, and levels of reading difficulty that are designed to be
supportive of the learning of readers with a range of experiences and
interests. A text-set collection focuses on one concept or topic and can
include multiple genres such as books, charts and maps, informational
pamphlets, poetry and songs, photographs, non-fiction books, almanacs or
encyclopedias. Text sets are designed to give readers a choice of
interesting and accessible text. They provide opportunities for learning and
practicing reading strategies.
JANIE RIDDLE GOODMAN
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
TEXT SETS: PROVIDING POSSIBILITIES FOR
ADOLESCENT READERS
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Provide Guided Ask the students turn and talk about each
Practice character’s traits and motivations. Encourage
students to share their evidence from the text
Invite the students to
that supports their thinking. As the students to
practice the strategy
discuss where they would place the evidence on the
with teacher guidance.
H-chart, and their reason for its placement.
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Character Trait: _______________________________________________
Text 1
evidence
Same
evidence
Text 2
evidence
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Anchor Lesson: 23 Inferring to compare and contrast
author’s opinions
Pre-assessment Turn and talk to your partner about what you Notes to Build
know about author’s opinions. Next Lesson
Select the Text: Informational texts about the same topic
Materials or two different choices from the text set list
about similar or different topics. One
suggestion is Bug Butts by Dawn Cusick and
another text set item about bugs.
Name the Authors often write informational texts to not
Strategy Explain only give factual information, but to convince us
to agree with them, to change our thoughts
about a topic, to think about an idea on a deeper
“I have noticed that …”
level or to learn something from their writing by
conveying an opinion. When we read multiple
“A strategy readers
texts about a similar topic, we can infer the
use is …”
opinions the authors are trying to convey and
compare them to others, even though they may
not state these directly. Finding the author’s
Introduce the Text
opinion is making an inference. We find the
author’s opinion so that we can understand his or
her point of view. Different authors have
different points of view.
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
me want to read more. Next I look at the table
of contents, and the first thing I notice is the
first 8 chapters are all different kinds of butts.
The author really has my attention now, and I
may learn a little more about bugs without being
so afraid of them. Dawn Cusick isn’t saying,
“you should like bugs!” but I am inferring she
feels this way- this is her opinion.
Share a few ideas you have as you read and
think aloud about what the opinion might be and
the evidence in the text to support your
thinking. Document your thinking on an enlarged
H-chart. Read the second text, and see if the
author is also trying to give you the opinion that
bugs aren’t all that gross. After you read each
text, think aloud about how you reread and
search for evidence by using your schema.
Record ideas about the evidence you find that is
the same or different on the H-chart.
Show how comparing and contrasting evidence
helps them to understand that authors have the
same or differing opinions by including evidence
that students have to infer about.
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Provide Guided Students turn and talk about the evidence for
Practice each opinion. They discuss where they would
place the evidence on the H-chart, and their
Invite the students to
reason for its placement.
practice the strategy
with teacher guidance.
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Opinion: _______________________________________________
Text 1
evidence
Same
evidence
Text 2
evidence
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Anchor Lesson: 24 Inferring a common conflict
Pre-assessment Turn and talk to a partner about what you know Notes to build next
about universal themes lesson
Select the Materials Create anchor chart with 3 most common
conflicts
Internal: Man vs. Self
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
the T-chart, explaining how this evidence
supports the conflict theme on the right side
of the chart. Emphasize how both evidence and
explanation need to support the main conflict-
wanting to drive the bus.
Provide Guided Have students continue with the rest of the
Practice pigeon book.
Or
Invite the students to
practice the strategy with
Give partners other picture books that have a
teacher guidance.
clear conflict. Give them the conflict to track,
and have them identify evidence that supports
the conflict. Have them explain their reason,
always bringing it back to the conflict.
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences
Anchor Lesson: 25 Readers infer in combination with
other reading strategies
Pre-assessment Turn and talk to your partner about all of the Notes to Build
strategies you use as you read. Next Lesson
Select the Use classroom read aloud
Materials
Name the Strategy We have learned so much about inferring and
Explain today I want to teach you how readers infer
as well as use other reading strategies when
they are reading.
“I have noticed that …”
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Unit of Study: Making Inferences