Literacy

Lesson Plan - Super Moon! Making Inferences with Evidence

Pedagogical Focus - How can I help students feel more confident in their ability to
explain their answers?
What?
The students in my fourth grade classroom have just finished a project where
they had to go through the book we were reading, Jake Drake: Bully Buster, choose a
character and then state six characteristics that they believed described that
character. The students had to prove that these were accurate descriptions through
evidence from the text, and present both the evidence and characteristics on a
poster. My teacher, Ms. Harris, decided to use the Jake Drake book, that she liked,
instead of the proposed one from the district curriculum. However, she was able to hit
on all the same points that she was supposed to be teaching with that book. For the
next book we are going back to the district curriculum, and are going to start reading
Skeletons, it is an informational text about skeleton system in the human body as well as
in animals. I want my students to be exposed to some informational text reading and
writing before attempting to jump right into a book that is heavily analytical. The
students should be more confident in their ability to make inferences from
informational texts and in their ability to share and back it up with evidence.
How?
Most of my teaching is going asking students guiding questions that can help
direct them to the important parts of the texts based on their inferences. I want to act
as more of a facilitator than a leader of the group and allow discussions between
students to really flourish. In my classroom, students are given the opportunity to talk
to their tables but rarely are they given the chance to partner one on one with another
student, and then share with the whole group. A pair share is a new and different way
to expose students to voice their opinions. I also want the students to be able to
represent some of their ideas through a variety of multimodal ways. Writing is
obviously the most important feature but coloring is also a great way to allow students
to show their ideas in for some students is much easier.
Why?
My students never read any informational texts on their own, and we have only done
independent informational text readings and writings through an online source Achieve
3000. The students were pretty successful in their ability to pick out evidence from a
chapter book but none of them have been doing any independent informational text
reading, and as a class we have not done any writing on informational texts. I know that
the common core is more informational text driven than the old state curriculum and I
also know that it can be troublesome to be engaged with and understand. Fountas and
Pinnell believe that students will be more successful if they are exposed to texts that are
alike, they say, knowledge of similar texts helps readers interpret new texts (1996,

146). By gaining the experience of reading and comprehending an informational texts,

these students will be better prepared for the heavy emphasis on informational texts.
Introducing informational texts in a subject that all the students have
background knowledge on will also make it more accessible. Non-narrative nonfiction
work can be extremely daunting when it is first presented to students so helping them
ease into these essential readings can really help. Adults, for the most part, read mostly
informational texts and that makes it an important skill that needs to be taught in
school.
Goals/Objectives - Students will be able to make inferences after reading an
informational text.
Students will be able to use evidence from the text to help explain and write their
inferences.
Standards
CCSS. ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1 - Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what
the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Materials and Preparation
Actual text we have them reading
Graphic organizer to help them organize their thoughts
Marker
White Board
Scratch paper for coloring
Colored Pencils or Crayons
Classroom arrangement and management issues
Students will be organized at a table with 3 students on each side facing each other. The
whiteboard will be in the front of the room and I will be standing next to it to
start. After the lesson is introduced they will be in charge of moving their chairs (a skill
they have practiced in class) to get into groups of two to discuss. This will just involved
moving further down the table so that the students will be able to have a conversation
with just their partner. The expectations will be similar to our classrooms. One voice at
a time, raise your hand and wait to be called on, and no wrong answers will be the three
main focus points in terms of management. Students will have to return their chairs
back to the semi circle
Plans
First, we will remind the students of classroom expectations and thank them for
agreeing to help out with our lesson plan practice. Then, we will introduce the goals of
the lesson, to make inferences from the text and connect it back to what we have been
working on as a class.
(Hook 10 Minutes): Polar Bears are losing their homes due to the glaciers where they
are living melting. There is science, what we are learning about with the water cycle,
that says that their home is melting due to the earth getting warmer. This is caused by

greenhouse gases, like CO2, that are released by most cars. I want you guys to watch
this commercial and try to infer, figure out with evidence, why the polar bear would hug
the man?
Start with a commercial -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM76XyLu6tY&list=PLKwp_2KP954PA1YfeMKXnsa
0ivGx6J2j2
Why did the polar bear hug the man?
Students will be shown a photo of the supermoon from November 14 and then
asked to talk about it with their partner. This will be followed by a quick share
with the group.
Each student will then be given the Newsela article, What is a super moon?
https://newsela.com/articles/lib-nasa-super-moon/id/23783/
Before students start, teacher will model how to make an inference and provide
evidence from reading a text. Like we have been doing in class with main idea, we are
now going to be with inferences. Tell students that making inferences and being able to
provide evidence is an important skill to understand what they are reading. Direct
students to the first paragraph of the article and do a shared reading out loud as an
entire group, and then state the inference that the some people are not excited for the
super moon because they believe that it causes bad events to happen, one example is
from the text is that the moonlight wakes people up.
(The Body - 20 Minutes): Students then will be told to read the article and told to think
about how they would describe a super moon after reading the text. Students will be
given the graphic organizer (Sample at Bottom) to follow along with the text. Students
must make two inferences and come up with two or three pieces of evidence from the
text for each of the inferences.
Students will then be told to discuss with their partner the two inferences and evidence
that they came up with. The purpose will be to choose one of the inference and share it
and its evidence with the entire group. If students finish early, they will be allowed to
draw what they think the super moon looks like or if they saw it what it actually looks
like.
(The Closure - 10 Minutes): We will then come back together as a full group and student
groups will share the one inference they have made and the evidence that they have
from the text that supports it. Students will then be told to watch out for the super
moon in December (that the article mentions) and encourage their family and friends to
look as well.

Anticipating students responses and your possible responses 3 Student Responses:

1. The super moon is a perigee moon perigee moons are closer to Earth
2. The super moon can be dangerous some people think it makes them sick
Response: Take a closer look at the article and make sure that it is evidence for
the inference you are making.

3. The super moon is red looking at the picture
Response: Make sure that you have more than 1 piece of evidence and that if
you are using some not from the text, that you have at least two text based
pieces of evidence.

Assessment of the goals/objectives listed above Teacher will collect the students graphic organizers; students can keep their scratch
paper. Teacher will also take notes as they walk around viewing student discussions and
the final large group discussion.
Accommodations If there was a student in the group selected that needs a differentiation, the first place I
would start is with the graphic organizer, allowing them to just come up with one
inference and the evidence for that. I could also just allow the student to find one piece
of evidence for each inference and yet another way is to create another graphic
organizer that gives the student the inference but forces them to find the evidence from
the article that supports it. I think both of these ways still make the student use a lot of
their cognitive abilities but it is more doable than both finding two inferences and the
evidence.

If the student is a lower level reader, the article can easily be changed to the
level that fits that students particular needs. I think that working in partners will also
help students see a more diverse range of inferences.