After you have taught an introduction lesson to inferring (I use the garbage bag lesson) you want to make sure that you do several follow up lessons to clear up any misconceptions about the strategy. One of the common mistakes I notice first graders make when they infer is just saying anything and calling it an inference. A few years ago I went to a conference and Margaret Kilgo said that you can't let kids think that their 'schema' trumps evidence. Later on when they get to those high stakes test they think that any schema they have will also match the character and it can be devastating to the thinking and answering. That makes sense...as I noticed my students that year trying to use inferring I realized what a problem that could be. The best solution to this is to teach from the beginning that there has to be text evidence to support an inference.
This is a lesson I presented this year to my student to try and help. Please forgive the poodle skirt...it was the 50th day of school.
Please note that I did not read the text in this lesson. We were using Sleepy Bears by Mem Fox which is one of our writing mentor texts. I had read it several times during the week and we had looked at various text features. One of the best things I have EVER learned as a teacher is to use good mentor texts. Then you can squeeze tons of learning out of one text without having to read a book for every strategy you use. I love to read new books, but we are working with short attention spans. If you look at trying to get in and get out with a focus lesson then you can't take the time to read a new book with every single lesson.
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