Literacy: Lesson Design
What:
I planned and taught a lesson on drawing inferences from literature to a small group of five fourth grade students. My goal in teaching this lesson was to review and reinforce a brief lesson on inference that had recently been taught by the classroom teacher. However, while the original lesson was intended for the entire class, a number of students were not present at the time. As such, I was aware that the lesson I planned may have introduced the concept to some of the students in the group. I also was motivated to teach this lesson in light of the classroom teacher's statement that--due to its importance--the class would be revisiting the concept.
How:
I structured the lesson to simultaneously review and reinforce a brief lesson on inference that had recently been taught by the classroom teacher. I planned to begin the lesson by reviewing—with the help of student volunteers—what it means for a reader to infer meaning from a text and how to do it. I then introduced and read a portion of Eve Bunting’s One Green Apple to the group. I paused periodically while reading to give students time to draw inferences. The first, I modeled. Then, we practiced as a group. The students then drew the next few inferences individually. Each student recorded his/her thinking on the provided graphic organizer, before sharing with the small group. Each student also completed a similar graphic organizer with one final inference as an exit ticket. We did not discuss the students' final inferences, but I collected their organizers for review.
Why:
I chose to focus on inference because I believe that the skill is critical to reading comprehension. I believe that there is far more to reading than decoding or reciting a text by rote. Drawing inferences requires more than reading the text; strong readers most also read between the lines.
I chose to employ graphic organizers as opposed to relying solely on discussion because of the students previously observed tendency to make tangential connections when asked for feedback. I hoped to minimize the possibility that the students may get distracted and sidetracked by their desire to draw connections (personal, text-to-text) to the text by providing graphic organizers to each student. Each student was also provided with a separate graphic organizer to complete as an exit ticket, to enable me to gage individual comprehension, conduct a formative assessment, and collect information to share with the classroom teacher to aid the students’ future learning.
In designing my graphic organizer [pictured right], I was inspired by the classroom teacher's original lesson. While explaining how to make an inference from a text, the teacher drew two pictures:
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a picture of a book to represent what had been read;
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a picture of a brain to represent what a reader knows.
I sought to reflect this imagery, based on both its clarity and familiarity to the students, in the organizer.
(click image to enlarge)