Courtney Alexander

Inferring Themes-5th Grade

Objectives

We will use words, actions, events, ideas, and pictures to infer themes while reading.
I will share three strategies I learned for inferring themes, by completing an exit slip.

Focus/Anticipatory Set

Review definition of inference/inferring:

An inference is an educated guess based on your background knowledge (what you
already know) and text evidence.
Discuss theme vs. plot definitions, using The Three Little Pigs
Plot- sequence of events; what happens in the reading
Have students turn and talk about the plot of The Three Little Pigs.
Have a student give the whole class a quick summary of the plot of The Three
Little Pigs.
Theme- The bigger events that are not written down; you have to go beneath the surface
of the story in order to figure out the theme. There are often many themes in a story.
Writers rarely tell us directly what the themes are, so we usually have to infer them.
Often we can feel the themes in our guts. Themes are not specific to one story.
Themes can be inferred from words, actions, events, ideas, and pictures.
For example, in The Three Little Pigs, the first pig was pretty lazy and ended up
as the wolfs supper because he did not want to work very hard. Laziness could be
a theme here.
Ask students if they can think of another theme for The Three Little Pigs, based
on the pigs behavior.
Have students turn and talk about the difference between plot and theme.

Relevancy
When facing reading passages in the future, students will have to be able to think about
the underlying meaning within texts, because meaning is not always explicit.
Explanation/Teaching Strategies & Modeling

Pre-teach vocab for We Were Here, Too- Pass out vocab definition sheet and go over it
with students.
Allow students to preview the text for a couple of minutes.
Point out the text structure: Intro paragraphs, two women point of views (1 person)
Say: While I read watch what I am doing to infer themes. I will carefully read the words
and pay close attention to the pictures, searching for clues that help me infer themes.

Say: When I find evidence that supports a theme, I will record it on this chart (chart
paper). I will write the evidence from the text in the left column and the themes in the
right column.
Read the introduction paragraphs. Model how you have a theme in your mind, then
search for the evidence.
Say: So, I have a theme in mind first. I feel that the theme of unfairness describes
what Ive read so far. I am going to go back through the paragraph and look for
evidence that supports the theme of unfairness. What text evidence could we use
to support this theme?
Underline the phrases: Against our will, we cleared and planted their
fields, raised their children, got sick from disease, went hungry when the
crops failed, and helped America become free from England as evidence
to support this theme.
Read the Angela paragraphs. Model how other times, you do not have an idea of a
theme in advance, so you have to look closely at the words and ideas in the text to infer
the themes.
After reading Angelas story, I do not have an idea of the theme in advance, so I
will have to look closely at the words, pictures, and ideas in the text to infer the
themes.
1. Examine the picture. How do you think Angela is feeling based on her
facial expression?
2. Look at the words Angela used to describe her experience and the
events she went through (captured, thrown, wet, dirty, little to eat, people
dying around her, cried, strange)
3. After discussing the evidence in the text, I feel that loneliness and
suffering could be themes for this section.
Questioning Strategies

Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis

Guided Practice

Students work in groups of four to find themes on the second page of the reading (Oney
Judge) with their table groups. Continuing to fill out the chart, writing the theme on the
right, text evidence on the left.
The class will come back together whole-group to share the themes found and the
supporting evidence for those themes.

Closure- Review strategies for inferring themes: looking closely at the words used, examining
the pictures, and thinking about the bigger ideas in the text (exit slip)
Independent Practice- Students will complete an exit slip, indicating strategies that they can use
to infer the theme of a text.

Materials- Text (We Were Here, Too), chart paper, document camera, highlighter, pencil
evidence/theme chart for each student, definition page for each student, exit slip
Duration- 1 hour