Inferrring Lessons

Inferrring Lessons

Lesson: Adding a piece to Harry's Brain

=> Bring out the poster of Harry. Explain that today we will be adding another piece to the puzzle in Harry's brain. Remind the kids that Harry's brain reminds us of all the strategies that great readers use when they read. Review the pieces that have been added previously.

==> Today we are going to add a piece called inferring. Inferring is using clues in the story to figure things out.

==> How many of you have ever watched Scooby Doo? What does the gang do? They use clues to figure out who did it. (You might show a short scooby doo clip at this point).

==> Great readers are like the Scooby Doo gang. They are always on the look out for clues when they read and they use the clues to figure things out inside the story.

==> Today as you read I want you to think about what you know about inferring. Think about what inferring might look like.

Lesson: Sparky the inferring firefly

==> I'd like to introduce you to Sparky the Firefly today. Sparky always gets bright ideas. He is always on the lookout for clues when he reads. His tail lights up when he infers (figures things out by using clues). Let's add him to our FACE Board under the C for comprehension.

==> Authors don't always tell us everything, but we can use clues that they leave in the story along with our schema and we can infer. For example, if I told you that today is my friend's birthday could you infer (figure out) how she's feeling? My schema tells me that most people are pretty excited and happy on their birthday so I can infer that she is probably happy and excited.
If I told you that the farmer just came in the house with a fresh bucket of milk, what can you infer? He was probably out milking a cow.

==> Authors often leave things to our imagination. They leave clues that we must connect with our schema and with other parts of the story in order to understand the story.

==> Today I'm going to model what inferring looks like. I'm going to read a story called Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe. Before we get started reading, let's activate our schema and find out what we know about fireflies.

==> As you read the story, think aloud so that the children can see what it looks and sounds like to infer.

Lesson: Clues in the Garbage

==> Bring in a bag of "clean" trash (trash you specifically selected for this lesson).

==> I have new neighbors. I'm so curious what about them and what they are like. I wonder if they have children? Maybe they have some of the same hobbies I do... Today is garbage day and as I was driving by there house I noticed they put some garbage out. I quick grabbed a bag of their garbage. I wonder what it will tell me about them. Do you think garbage can tell you about somebody?

==> Let's look and see what's in here. Oh look, there's some birthday wrapping paper in here. Someone must have just had a birthday. And look at this, seed packets and plant trimmings. Someone in that house must like to garden. Oh my, look at all this junk food wrappers. Maybe they are too busy to cook healthy meals. Here's a dirty diaper (put chocolate chips in it and melt in microwave). They must have a baby.

==> Wow, we learned a lot about my new neighbors just by looking at their trash. Nobody told us about the family, we figured it out using clues. That's inferring.

==> Readers often need to infer when they read. They figure things out as they go along in the story. The author doesn't tell you everything. Stories could get REALLY long if they told us EVERYTHING. For example, the author might say Amanda was riding her bike down the street one day. I can infer that the character is a girl. The author didn't need to say Amanda is a girl.

==> That was some pretty simple inferring. Sometimes we have to do some much more complex inferring.

Lesson: Unanswered questions?

==> Boys and girls, remember when we were learning about the questioning strategy? Sometimes we found the answers to our questions right there in the text. But sometimes the author didn't tell us the answer. We had to figure it out on our own.

==> When the author doesn't tell us the answer with words in the text they want us to use our strategies to infer. Yesterday I modeled what it looks like to infer. You guys were chomping at the bit to give it a try.

==> We're going to read a book today called The Stranger. You're really going to need to have busy brains. You're going to need to listen for clues within the text and you're going to need to be ready to take your schema and infer.

==> Read the story and have kids practice inferring as you pause throughout the story.

==> At the end of the reading there may be questions for which there are no definitive answers. What do we do now? We infer based on our schema, our hearts and our thoughts.

Lesson: You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes

==> We can learn a lot about a person by looking at their shoes. I have several shoes here today. Take out an old warn out grandpa type slipper. Look closely at this slipper. Who do you think it belongs to? What can you tell me about this person by looking at their slipper? (It looks like the kind of slipper an old person would wear- my grandpa has one just like it. I think they maybe they don't have a lot of money cause the shoe is all worn out and has holes in it. etc)

==> Now look at this slipper (pull out a ballet slipper). What can you tell me about this person? (They take dance class, they are a girl cause it's pink, they are probably pretty little cause the shoe is so small)

==> You might bring out a work boot too. What can you tell me about this person?

==> What you just did was inferring based on the clues that you had. Readers do the same thing when they read. They can learn a lot about the characters in the story by inferring.

==> As I read today I want you to pay special attention to the characters. What do you know about them? What can you infer about them?

==> Read The Whale's Song.

==> Make a 3 column chart. Label one column for the Uncle, one for the grandma and one for the little girl. Chart what you know about the characters. Next to ideas that come directly from the text mark a T. Next to the ones that required inferring mark an I.

Lesson: Pieces of a puzzle

==> Set out one of those large piece puzzles in the center of the group area. Have kids sit around the perimeter. This puzzle helps me understand inferring. I thought it might help you too.

==> Inferring can help us better understand the stories because it fills in the missing pieces. It's like the story is a puzzle and our brain is putting it together.

==> Sometimes the author leaves out pieces. In order to better understand the story we have to infer to fill in the missing pieces.

Lesson: Readers infer meanings of unknown words

==> We've been talking a lot about inferring. Today I'd like to teach you about how inferring helps us when we don't know what a word means.

==> The book we are reading has quite a few new words in it. They are probably words that you've never heard before. When we come to new words we are going to write them down on this board. We are going to use clues to help us figure out what the words mean.

==> What kinds of clues do you think might help us?