Addi Freiner

09-17-15

Teaching Reading: Mini Lesson Format (Calkins, 2001)

Targeted Literacy Strategy or Skill: Inferring what is not explicitly explained in a Text
Grade level: 4th grade
Objective: The student will be able to understand the information provided in literature and make
inferences about the story and the cover illustration.
Common Core State Standard/ PASS Standard: CCSS RL4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text.
Prior knowledge: (What students already know) Students know how to determine the big ideas in a
text and can connect the events of a story. They have been introduced to the use and meaning of inference.

Observations/Rationale: (Before Lesson) What did you notice in your students work that let you
know this lesson was necessary? (This will be an approximation this semester.) I noticed that while
reading, students had a hard time developing insight throughout the story that was not explicitly written in
the text. Some can look at the cover of a book, or read the actual story, and can infer/predict what will
happen, while others believe that there is no way of estimating what information a story holds.
Materials Needed
Lesson from (Name your source including page number) Using Inferring from the Cover and
Illustrations as Well as the Text STW pages 140-141
Mentor Text: Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen
Materials: A copy of the mentor text, Tight Times, for each small group, writing utensils, clipboards
Student Groups The students will read as a whole class then work together in small groups.
Mini Lesson Format:
Connect (AKA~ Anticipatory Set, Engagement/Pre-reading): Often when we read there is more
information to find in the text that is not simply written within the book for us to read. Have you
ever read a book, seen a movie, or listened to a story and just had a feeling you knew what the
events were leading to? That was your brain using inference without you even knowing. Our
brains can help us think past the given information in order to piece help us understand better.
When we can listen to information, see illustrations, or read text and can draw conclusion from
that knowledge we call it inferring!

Teach (Model/Explain): Just like we talked about on Tuesday, inference helps us combine the facts
that we know from background knowledge as well as facts given to us by the author or illustrator
to reach a deeper understanding of the story written. The idea of inferring seems hard, but each of
us in this classroom infer or predict outcomes every day! Now that we have knowledge about
inferring, we are going to begin Barbara Shook Hazens Tight Times to see if we can put our
inference skills to use! Before we begin, lets look at the cover of this book. When I look at the
cover of this book, I see a boy who looks sad due to his frown, downward looking eyes, and body
language. I see that he has a whole pile of lima beans on his plate and only one on his fork! From
this information mixed with the figurative meaning of the phrase tight times, I can use my
background knowledge to infer that the boy is sad and that his family might be going through a
tough time.

Active Engagement (AKA~ Check for Understanding: students try it out, teacher observes):
Now that I have shown you my own verbalization and organization of my background knowledge
and use of inference, its your turn to try! I want you all to get in your four-team groups. In these
groups, you will be given a copy of Tight Times. In these groups I want you all to read and look at
the following two pages we did not read and see if you can use your background knowledge to
infer an write your thoughts/inference on your clipboards what is happening within the story. Once
we have had a few minutes, lets gather as a group and each group will share their
inferences/predictions and how they think the story ends!

Link (AKA~ Closing the Lesson [with accountability for the skill/process]) (After the inferences
have been shared with the whole class) As you can see, we dont need all the information to start
understanding a story. Our minds can pick up on clues within the words and pictures of a book to
fill the gaps and holes in the story. This understanding that comes from hints within the text and
from your own thinking is inference and can be used while reading books, telling stories, or even
watching movies! If you observe the circumstances of a story, you can pick up on clues the author
has left. During our next reading I want you all to pay close attention to the details of the story to
see if we can infer the storys events!