Sarah Smith

CIED 3293

09/17/15

Targeted Literacy Strategy or Skill: Using all aspects of the book to infer meaning.
Grade level: Fifth Grade
Objective: Students will be able to infer information about a story from clues left by the author in the
illustrations, cover, and the text. Students will also be able to understand the difference between inferring
and predicting.
Common Core State Standard/PASS: RL.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the
text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
RL.5.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative
language such as metaphors and similes.
RL.5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text
(e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
Prior knowledge: (What students already know) Students have been learning how to infer information
from all aspects of a book. They know how to read facial expressions and body language. They know how
to make predictions.
Observations/Rationale: (Before Lesson) What did you notice in your students work that let you
know this lesson was necessary?
The students were only reading what was in black and white on the page. They did not know the
difference between inferring something from the text and predicting what would happen next.

Materials Needed:
Lesson From: STW p 140-141
Mentor Text: Tight Times by Barbara Shook
Materials: The story book, clipboards, paper, pencils, and one large piece of chart paper
Student Groups (whole/small group/partners): Whole class
Mini Lesson Format:

Connect (Engagement): We have been learning how to infer information. We are going to work
more with our inferring skills. This is the book that we will be working with today. The title is
Tight Times by Barbara Shook. What is some information that you guys can infer from the cover
and the title of this book?

Teach (Model/Explain): Point out the big paper chart and tell them that as we infer information we

will record it here, and they should take notes on their papers so they can remember what they
infer. When you are able to infer information make a note of it on your clipboard papers so you
do not forget it, and wait for me to come to a stopping point to share. Then after you share your
inference with the class you can write it on the paper chart. Show the students the cover of the
book and model inferring information. Say I see a boy on the cover who seems to be sad. I am
inferring that based on his facial expression and the way he is slumped over. He is holding a bean
up to his mouth so maybe he does not like beans. The title of the story is Tight Times, and based on
my background knowledge that means that maybe his family is poor. Also when times are tight
people usually eat a lot of beans because they are cheap.

Active Engagement (student(s) try it out): Start to read the story and stop periodically to see if the
students have any inferred thoughts. Let the student that inferred the information come up to the
chart paper and write down their ideas. After a student says their idea ask them how they got that
information. Did the author tell you? What makes you think that? Make sure that if they end up
predicting information you point out the difference between inferring and predicting, but do not
discredit their thoughts.

Link/Closure (Articulating the expectation that students will now use this skill/strategy when
reading or writing): You guys have always had good ideas about stories and predicting
information, but now that we have gone over inferring I will expect you to read remembering your
background knowledge and using text clues. I will also expect you guys to read the pictures to
infer more information. You will be surprised with what all you can learn!