1. 5th Grade Reading Lesson: Inferring
• Reading Lesson: Inferring
Gitta Denning 3/7/2013
Stephani Edell 5th grade
1 20-minute lesson
• Purpose
The purpose of this lesson is to review the reading strategy of inference and to do an
activity with the 5th grade students where they are able to practice their inferring skills.
• Learning Objective/Learning Target
Students will learn (or be reminded) that whenever they read – for leisure or for an
assignment, they should be inferring as they read. This means constructing meaning about
characters or events beyond what is literally stated in the text. Inferring while reading – or
anything else – helps us become deeper thinkers.
• Standards
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy
CC.5.R.I.1 Key Ideas and Details: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the
text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
AASL Standards for 21st Century Learner
1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format in order to make
inferences and gather meaning.
• Instructional resources & materials (list all print and non-print materials and/or equipment
you will use)
Needed by you:
Picture Book(s)
Worksheets with comic strip activities (attached)
Computer attached to the overhead projector
Needed by students:
Pencils
• Instructional strategies and learning tasks (outline your lesson so another person could
teach it)
Focusing event: 3-5 minutes
I will get the students attention by doing a quick activity of inferring riddles. I will read
a few short descriptions of something and the students will need to infer where I am and
what I am doing.
Input from you: 3 minutes
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2. o After the focusing event, I will ask them what they know about inferences. I will
help them with a definition and will also make sure that, while the two are related,
students understand that inference is not prediction. (3 minutes)
o I will then explain that they will work in pairs at the tables they are already seated at
to complete the activity.
Guided practice: 10 minutes
o Students will interact with me as I read the “inferring riddles” that ask them “where
I am” and “what I am doing”.
o Students will break into pairs and complete the comics activity. They will receive a
comic with the text bubbles missing text and will have to fill in text bubbles based on
what they inferred was happening in the illustrations.
o One at a time, students will share with their classmates what their group thinks the
text bubbles should say to complete the comic.
Closure: 2 minutes
I will end the lesson by posing some brief questions about inference, which will help me
informally assess student understanding about this reading strategy.
Book Check Out: 5 minutes
• Assessment
Assessment will be informal as I ask students to raise their hands and share what they
learned about inference during the lesson.
• What’s next?
There are no additional lessons.
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