Nicole Steich

ELD 307
Dr. Casey
4/7/15
Readers Workshop: Inferring
Grade: 1
Rationale: Students should be able to infer and ask themselves questions
about the text that cannot necessarily be answered just by looking at what is
written on the page. This will help in their understanding of the text and their
reading comprehension skills.
Common Core State Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.1 Ask and answer
questions about key details in a text.
Objective: SWBAT make inferences based on the fictional texts they have
been working with.
Materials:
Book, Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe
Notebook paper
Procedures:
Lesson Introduction
o Readers, we have started our unit on inferring. Today I want to talk about how,
as readers, we can infer when we are reading a book. To infer means to figure out
something. Authors dont always tell us everything, but we can use the clues that
they leave in the story to 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 with a
basket of chicken eggs, what can you infer? He was probably out getting eggs
from the chicken coop.
o **DISCLAIMER students would have already learned about a schema and what
purpose it serves in reading and as a reading strategy**

Teach and Model:

o 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.
o Students will then begin to talk about what they already know about fireflies.
Things like what they look like, where they live, and how they behave.
o As I read the story with the students I will think aloud so that the students can see
what inferring looks like.

Guided Practice
o By the middle of the book students should be invited to assist you in what is
happening in the book and inferring.
o Now I want you to help me to infer and help me to think out loud.
o After reading the chapter have students turn and talk with a partner about the
different things that they inferred about.
o Write the text clues the class discusses on a piece of chart paper.
o Have students share and discuss out loud with the rest of the class.

Independent Practice
o Readers, I think you are doing an excellent job at inferring and thinking out loud
when reading the text. I think youre ready to do this on your own. Now I want
you to go back to your desks and take out any fiction book you have been reading.
On a sheet of paper, I would like you to write three things that inferred with this
text and your evidence (from your schema or from the text) that helped you come
to that conclusion. When youre done you keep your sheets on your desk so I can
come around to check your understanding.

Assessment:
I will be able to determine if the students met the objective if after reading and doing
examples together, students are able to write their own inferences from the fictional texts.
If students are not successful I will pull those students for a guided reading lesson.
Differentiation:
To help students who may not be grasping the concept of inferring I might have to sit down
with them and teach them the lesson again using a simpler or shorter book.
I might also give them easier books to practice with first before they begin to infer using
the books they have chosen for themselves.
I could also have students work with a partner using the same book so that they are able to
watch a peer do the questioning and figuring out.
Future Connections:
This will aid in students comprehension of texts.
It will also allow them to make inferences based on the text that the author gives rather
than the entire story being laid out in front of them.
They also get their schema working and learn how to make connections with things they
already know in order to make inferences.
Resource:
http://www.thelearningpad.net/rw7.html

Writers Workshop: How-To Booklets

Grade: 1
Rationale: Teaching this lesson will give students the opportunity to do
something that they will most likely have to do at some point in their lives.
Giving explicit instructions on how to do something is a skill that writers must
master. This is something that students will definitely use in the future so it is
important that they learn this skill.
Common Core Standards:
W.1.3: Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced
events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event
order, and provide some sense of closure.
W.1.7: Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of
how-to books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions).
Objectives: SWBAT write the steps for their How-To books, after creating a
model as a whole class.
Materials:
Easel, chart paper and markers
Sample How-To Book (I have created previously)
Overhead projector
Writing prompt papers for the steps
Procedure:
Lesson Introduction:
1. Gather students on the rug to talk about some topics we can teach someone
step by step. Make a list of these things on the chart paper
2. Tell students that some of these topics need to be explained to others. One
way that writers do this is in How-To books. Many times these books are
written about things we consider ourselves to be experts on.
3. Have students turn and talk for one minute about a topic they would like to
write about.
4. After a minute have the students turn their attention to the overhead projector
Teach and Model:
5. On the overhead projector, mirror the piece of work that you have cerated
with writing steps for How-To books.

6. Now as a class, create the steps of writing about a specific topic. Things that
should covered in these steps are specific words or phrases, or particular
things that the reader MUST know in order to do the activity correctly.
Explain to students that this is just like writing directions, if you don't write
the directions correctly then the person may do the activity completely wrong.
Guided Practice

8. Model the topic on easel: How To Brush Your Teeth

9. Call on students to tell you each step with specific detail.
10. While writing the steps of our How-To books on the easel, ask students
of some words that they may think fit well to make our directions a sequence.
(First, Second, Next, Then, After, Finally, Last, etc.)
11. Instruct students to return to their desks and use the writing prompt paper
to write step-by-step instructions on any topic he or she wants to teach.
Independent Practice:
13.
Walk around the classroom to assess that students are writing step-by-step
instructions on the topic of their choice.
14. If students are confused about how to write their steps, guide and instruct
them by having the student list the steps out loud before writing them down.

Assessment:
I will collect whatever work the students have completed. I will check to
see how clear their step-by-step instructions are. I will look for specific
things like transition words and phrases that were gone over in guided
practice. Whichever students have trouble I will pull aside for small
group instruction during the next writers workshop.
Differentiation:
Have students draw pictures next to their steps for visualization.
Use an organizer with separate boxes first before actually writing the steps for an easier
way to organize their thoughts.
Future Connections:
This will help students to understand that directions are extremely important.
They will hopefully realize that as writers the more specific they are the better their writing
will be.
Resource:
This type of workshop was taught in another field experience that I had previously.