Inferencing and Summarizing with Miss Alaineus
Literacy Standards:
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features.
Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes.
Strategy/Skill Focus:
Reading Comprehension
- Strategies for Reading Comprehension
- Inferencing and Summarizing
Student Learning Competencies:
As a result of this lesson, students will have more practice at and will
o be better at making inferences from a text
o be better at summarizing
o be able to explain what elements to include in a summary of a narrative text
o be able to give at least two strategies to use when reading a narrative text to increase understanding of the text
Instructional Materials and Resources:
· Book: Miss Alaineus by Debra Frasier
· Chart Paper
· Summarizing Guide
· Inferencing Guide
· Summarizing Model
Instructional Activities:
BEFORE READING:
- The teacher will have the class come to the group meeting area. Rationale: The teacher is bringing the group to a group meeting area so that everyone will be able to hear each other and see the book.
- The teacher tells that class that they are going to work on two different strategies that they can use when they are reading a narrative text. The teacher asks the students to recall what a narrative text is. The teacher listens to student responses. If the students are having difficulty, the teacher may remind the students that a narrative text has different elements. The teacher will then guide students to recalling that narrative texts have characters, a setting, a plot, a theme, a conflict and a resolution. The teacher should write down the different elements on the chart paper. The teacher tells that class that knowing the different parts of a narrative makes it easier for them to do one of the techniques that they will learn today: Summarizing. The teacher tells the students that when they summarize, they should try to include all of the elements of the narrative. The teacher should hand students the Summarizing Guide sheet (a sheet with spaces for title, author, characters, setting, plot, and theme). The teacher should tell the students that when they read the story, they will look for and discuss these elements so that the students will be able to summarize the story by the end. Rationale: Summarizing is a reading strategy that helps students understand literature. The teacher prepares the students to do summaries so that they may apply this strategy to their reading. The teacher gives them a guide because research shows that students do better summaries when they have a guide. The teacher relates this lesson to the previous lesson because it helps students to construct meaning when they relate ideas to prior knowledge.
- The teacher tells the class that another technique that they will be working on is inferencing. The teacher asks the class if they remember what inferencing is. The teacher listens to student responses. If the students are having difficulty the teacher may remind students that inferencing is the "process of judging, concluding, or reasoning from some given information". The teacher hands out the inferencing guide sheet. The teacher goes over the strategy of using inferencing to understand text by looking for clue in the book, thinking about what they know about the topic, and using the clues and what they know to figure out what the author means. The teacher gives the class the example that if the teacher read "Samantha was very excited. She was running as fast as she could. As she reached the finish line, her whole face glowed with her smile." The teacher asks the students what they think is happening. The teacher listens to student responses. The teacher asks the students why they knew that Samantha won the race. The teacher listens to student responses. The teacher tells the class that this is inferencing. The teacher congratulates the class on their ability to inference. The teacher tells the students that they will use inferencing in this text not only to understand what is happening in the story, but also to make predictions. The teacher tells the students that they will work on this technique while reading the story. Rationale: The teacher asks students to recall their previous knowledge about inferencing to help students connect this lesson to their previous knowledge. This helps students construct meaning. The teacher is helping prepare the students to inference in this lesson. The teacher is teaching inferencing because it is an important strategy for students to be able to use and apply to help them construct meaning while reading.
- The teacher asks the students to look at the book. The teacher holds the book up for everyone to see. The teacher asks the class to identify the tittle and author of the book. The teacher calls on a student to response. The teacher asks the class if they have read any other books by this author. The teacher listens to student responses. If no one responds, the teacher may remind the class that she has also written One the Day You Were Born and Out of the Ocean. The teacher lets any students respond who have read these texts. Rationale: The teacher is trying to activate the student’s prior knowledge and background to help them construct meaning, "by relating ideas from a text to one’s prior knowledge."
DURING READING:
The majority of reading includes teacher modeling of using inferencing and summarizing techniques. The teacher modeling is important so that the teacher shows the students how to use and how to think about the strategy. This will help students when they practice the strategy, which is also done in the reading. The students do guided practice to provide models for other students who do not understanding how to do the technique and to help students get better at using the technique. The majority of these rationales are built off of these concepts.
TITLE PAGE
The teacher asks the class to look at the picture. The teacher asks the students to look at the lady handing out yellow sheets. The teacher asks the students to think about what might be happening in the picture. Where might the people be? The teacher reads the sign. It says 5th Grade, Room 202, Mrs. Page. The teacher says that she thinks that the people are at school and that the lady handing out the paper is the teacher. The teacher tells the class that this is an inference she is making from the picture. The teacher explains that the lady looks like she is older, and teachers are usually giving students papers. Rationale: The teacher is providing guided practice for students to help them infer. The teacher is showing the students how to use and how to think about the strategy being taught by "thinking aloud" with them.
NEXT PAGE
The teacher reads the text. The teacher asks the students what they think the text means. What is it? The teacher listens to student responses. Who is it from? How do they know this? It does not say anywhere who the sheet is from. The teacher points out that the students have inferred that the note card is from the teacher. Rationale: The teacher is continuing to model how to infer and is promoting guided practice for students. This is important so that students practice and get better at inferring, and may later be used to ensure that students understand and can use the strategy.
Page A
The teacher asks the students to think about the text. What does the text make them think? What do they think is going to happen? The teacher will think aloud and say that because of the title, and the fact that she says not to get sick on Vocabulary Day...Something may happen because the misses the vocabulary. The teacher points out that she is inferring this from the text and the title. Rationale: The teacher is promoting student practice of the skill of predicting. This is part of inferencing because they are using available information and prior knowledge to construct meaning.
Page B
The teacher reads the text. The teacher asks the students to pay attention to who the characters are. The teacher asks the students what characters have been introduced. The teacher writes them on the chart paper in the appropriate place. The teacher asks the students to think about what is happening and make any predictions as to what they think may happen. Rationale: The teacher is helping students pay attention to the key story elements so that they will be able to discuss these elements later in the lesson and write a summary.
Page C
The teacher reads the page. The teacher rereads, "My mom told her yes, I had my math problems and vocabulary words, and yes, I would get better soon." The teacher asks the class what they think may be going on here. The teacher asks the class why her mother would be answering the teacher. The teacher is trying to get the students to infer that the teacher had asked the mother is Sage had gotten her math and vocabulary and told her to get better soon. The teacher asks the class to think about what may happen. Rationale: The teacher is helping students practice inferencing through modeling and guided practice.
Page D
The teacher reads the text. The teacher asks the class what they think could have happened on Monday. Rationale: The teacher is having the students predict, which is part of inferencing.
Pages E-F
The teacher reads the page. The teacher talks to the class about how Sage is using her previous knowledge about the vocabulary words to figure out why Miss Alaineus is included in the text. The teacher talks to the class about how she is inferring why Miss Alaineus may be included in the vocabulary by comparing this name to her previous names. Rationale: The teacher is using Sage to show students how people use inferencing. This helps students see how other people can use inferencing and helps students understand what inferencing is. This is important so that students see how inferencing may be used in other situations besides reading a book.
Pages G-H
The teacher reads the text. The teacher asks the students to think about places in this page where Sage had to make inferences. Sage inferred what Miss Alaineus was by reflecting on different times she had heard the word. Rationale: Once again, the teacher is using Sage as an example of how people infer in their daily lives to help them construct meaning.
Pages I-J
The teacher reads the next page. The teacher asks the class if her definition makes sense according to Sage’s experiences with the word Miss Alaineus and other times that she has heard people’s names used as words. The teacher listens to student responses. Rationale: The teacher is promoting critical thinking about inferencing. The teacher is helping students understand that sometimes inferencing does not always bring you to the correct answer. This will help students have a better understanding of inferencing because they are thinking critically about it.
Pages K-L
The teacher reads the next two pages to the class. She asks the students to think about what might happen. Rationale: The teacher is promoting predicting, which is part of inferencing.
Pages M-N
The teacher reads the next page. The teacher asks the class what had happened? The teacher calls on a student and listens to the answer. The teacher asks the class if they have ever made a mistake like that in front of a class. The teacher listens to student responses. Rationale: The teacher is helping students practice the strategy summarizing. Also, the teacher is helping students relate to the book. Relating to or empathizing with characters is important in reading.
Pages O-P
The teacher reads the next page. The teacher asks the class what the author means that the day took a week to end. The teacher listens to responses. The teacher asks the class to keep thinking about their story elements. The teacher asks the class to think about the problem(s) that exist in the story. The teacher lists these on the chart paper. The teacher reminds the class that they should be paying attention to the problems and solutions. Rationale: The teacher is making sure that the students are remembering to pay attention to key story elements so that they will be able to discuss them later and write summaries.
Pages Q-R
The teacher reads the text. The teacher asks the class why the class was laughing. The teacher reminds the class that the author did not say that they laughed because of Sage’s mistake, but that they inferred this from the previous text. Rationale: The teacher is bringing it to the students' attention that they inferred the reason why the class was laughing. The teacher wants the students to see how easy it is to infer and not even have to think about the strategy.
Pages S-T
The teacher reads the next two pages. The teacher asks the students what they think might happen. Rationale: The teacher is having students practice predicting, which is part of inferring.
Page U
The teacher reads the next page. The teacher asks the class why Sage was grinning. The teacher listens to student responses and points out that they inferred this from the text. Rationale: The teacher is bringing to the students attention that they inferred from the text and picture. This is to help students see that they infer often, without having to think about doing it... It happens automatically!