Grade:  4         Number of students:  5-6       Duration of lesson:  Approx. 40 minutes

Goals/Objectives:

SWBAT: Students will be able to use [1] both the content of a text and their background knowledge to create inferences.

IOT: Enhance and strengthen reading comprehension skills

Standards (and Assessment Anchors, if applicable):

• RL.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

• RL.4.3 : Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

Materials and preparation:

• One Green Apple, by Eve Bunting

  • one copy, to be read aloud to group by teacher

• Graphic organizers

  • one per student to record individual thinking and responses during the lesson

• Exit tickets

  • one per student to record individual thinking and responses at the conclusion of the lesson

• Pencils, sharpened

While book may be too long to finish during the time allotted for the lesson, it is rich in details.  Both the words and illustrations will provide plenty of material/context for the students to draw inferences from however much of the text is covered during the lesson.

I will review the text in advance of the lesson in order to anticipate possible student responses and challenges that the students may face

Classroom arrangement and management issues:

The lesson will be conducted with all of the students and the teacher sitting together at a small table.

The students in the class as a whole exhibit a previously observed tendency to make tangential connections (personal, text-to-text) when asked for feedback.  I hope to minimize the possibility that the students may get distracted and sidetracked by their desire to draw connections to the text by providing graphic organizers to each student.  If necessary, I also intend to refocus the group by redirecting the conversation. [2]  For example, I may say: “[name] made a great text-to-self connection. Now, let’s make an inference…”  I anticipate that it may be necessary to explain the meaning of drawing/making an inference several time and provide multiple examples.

Plan:

(5-10 minutes)

• Review making inferences (process and concept)

  •   Ask for student responses

• As previously explained by the classroom teacher:

  • What you read + what you know = inference [3]

  • Readers make inferences because:

    • The author/book does not always state everything directly

    • Inferencing can be used to make predictions about a text

  • Authors provide clues to texts in the form of details

    • Readers need to think about those clues

  • Readers will often—but not exclusively—make inferences about characters’ emotions/feelings

  • Readers can use both pictures and written text to draw inferences

• Introduce text: One Green Apple, by Eve Bunting

  • Define potentially unfamiliar vocabulary from text

  • Provide context by briefly discussing apple picking [4]

• Establish procedure for sharing during the lesson

  • Draw and record inferences independently

  • Share inferences when prompted

(20-25 minutes)

• Read aloud to group, showing the book’s pictures to the students

• Pause following every two to three pages to ask for inferences

  • First inference, practice with teacher assistance/modeling [5]

  • Infer two times independently, while recording responses on graphic organizer.  Share these inferences with the group when prompted. [6]

    • Remind students: “Be sure to tell us how you know.”

  • Record one final, independent inference on the exit ticket

• The majority of questions will be higher order thinking questions, such as:

  • “How do you know?”

  • “Based on what we just read,…”

Assessment: [7] [8]

(5-10 minutes)

• Teacher will read one more section of text to group

• Exit ticket: each student will independently draw one final inference, recording the inference and their thinking on the provided exit ticket.  This will be collected, but not discussed as a group.

Additional, formative assessment of each student will be recorded by the teacher throughout the course of the lesson as students share their responses and thinking, both verbally and on the initial graphic organizer.

Anticipating students’ responses and my possible responses:

• In planning and teaching this lesson, I will keep in mind that:

  • It is necessary to establish expectations for behavior, sharing answers, showing that a student has an idea, etc…

  • The subject of the text, and some of the vocabulary, may be unfamiliar to the students

  • The students may be distracted by the desire to make connections (personal, text-to-text) to the text

Accommodations:

• Be prepared to ask for additional or fewer inferences

• Allow struggling students to look at the text more closely while they complete their exit ticket