Inferencing

Topic: Inferencing

Objectives & Outcomes:

• Students will be able to define inferencing and provide examples of inferencing in a text.
• Students will be able to use inferencing to analyze a text and come to a conclusion.

Materials

• Passage on inferencing
• Complex text with some passages related to inferencing
• Pencils and paper for note-taking

Warm-Up

• Ask students if they have heard of inferencing before. What is it?
• Show a picture or object and ask for a few students to share their guesses about what the picture is about.

Direct Instruction

• Define inferencing and give an example of inferencing (e.g. If I see that you have a bruise on your arm, I can infer that you are hurt).
• Explain that inferencing is a way of making logical guesses about what's happening in a text based on what we know about the world.
• Model inferencing with the passage, asking students to make guesses about what might happen in the story based on what they already know about the topic.

Guided Practice

• Pass out the passage to each group and have them read it silently.
• Ask students to come up with guesses about what might happen in the passage based on what they already know about the topic.
• Have students share their inferences with the group and discuss as a class.
• As a class, create a list of facts that they know about the topic and use those facts to help them make more informed inferences about the passage.
• Ask students to re-read the passage, making more informed inferences based on their knowledge of the topic.

Independent Practice

• Have students work in pairs to complete the comprehension questions about the passage.
• Encourage students to use their knowledge of the topic and inferences to help them answer the questions.
• As students complete the questions, have them share their answers with their partner and discuss their reasoning.

Closure

• Have students share their answers to the comprehension questions with the class.
• Have a few students provide examples of inferences and ask the class if they can think of any themselves.

Assessment

• The teacher will observe students during the small group lesson and take note of their participation and understanding of inferencing.
• The teacher will then assess the students' ability to use inferencing in their written passage by having them answer a few questions about their passage.