Mini-Lesson Template IDP# 1:
SAMPLE
Name: Field Student Date: _______
Lesson Title/#: Introduction to Inferencing Grade Level(s)/Course: 1st
Learning Central Focus: Teacher Readiness
Materials:
Whiteboard, Anchor chart, T-charts, Garbage bag with items in it such as empty dog food bag and empty Starbucks cup
Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks
Provide the step-by-step description of what the teacher (you) will be doing and/or what the students will be doing (Instructional Strategies) in bulleted-command format.
STUDENT READINESS
Engagement:
“Friends, I need your help with something today. Do you think you can give me a hand? You see, there’s some new people that moved in next door to me last week and I still haven’t met them! I only saw them when they moved in, not once since and I’m getting really curious about who they are. Do you think you all would be able to help me figure out who my neighbors are?”
Allow for student response and possible questions
“When I was taking out my garbage, I found this [show garbage bag] sitting on my sidewalk. It has to be my neighbor’s! Instead of just throwing it away, I took it! How could we use their trash to find out more about them?”
Allow for student response and ideas
“You’re right! We can use these clues to infer who my new neighbors are!”
Purpose Statement:
“Today, we are going to investigate what an inference is and how we do it. As readers, we need to be able to think about what we’re reading and inferring will help us figure things out that the author didn’t fully explain.”
INPUT
Instruction/Model/ Formative Assessments Strategies:
Instruction:
Teacher writes inference on the anchor chart
Ask who’s heard of the word before or can say anything about it
Student response
“I think that we’re on the right track. An inference means that we use clues we find, usually in stories we read, and the things we already know to make an educated guess.”
Ask students what we might use to make inferences
Student response
Remind students to stay in their spots
Dumb garbage bag out into the middle of the circle
Students silently examine the garbage and think about what things could mean
Students pair and share their thoughts
Model:
While students are sharing, draw a 3-column chart on the white board with the titles Clue, What I Know, and Inference at the top of each column when students are thinking
Bring students back together
Teacher picks up empty bag of dog food, “Hmm, I think this is a really interesting clue. Does anyone know what this is?”
Student response
“You’re right! It’s dog food (indicate and write in T-chart). Now, I know that dogs need to eat and this is their food (write in T-chart). So, using the clue that I found (hold up dog food bag) and what I already know about it, I’m going to infer that my new neighbors have a dog!”
Instruction:
Referencing the T-chart, ask what is needed in order to make an inference
Student response
Draw a plus and equal sign on the anchor chart with spaces in between
Have student(s) remind the class what “+” and “=” mean
After the equal sign, write “inference”
[Cold Call Name(s)] ask again what is needed to make an inference and write them into the equation as students tell you
Clues (with magnifying glass picture) + What I Know (with a thinking bubble picture) = inference (with a lightbulb picture)
Model:
Teacher picks up the Starbucks cup from the pile
Discuss with students what this is and what it could me
As a group, fill in the chart after discussion seems to be concluding
Starbucks cup as the clue, what they know about Starbucks in the next column, and the students inference is in the final column
Do this same process (discussion and filling in T-chart) 2 more times allowing students to pick the clue from the pile
Guided Practice:
Give students an object as a clue and ask them to think to themselves what inference they could make
Thumbs up near the heart when they think they’re ready
When all students are ready, have them turn to an elbow partner and talk about the prediction they made
When ready, have a full group discussion about the inferences they made from the same clue and how they might have gotten to that conclusion
Take several responses to see if there are differences in thinking
Write responses in T-chart
Bring students back to full group
Ask them to pick their own clue and formulate their own inference
Discuss and write answers in T-chart
Go over any items not covered if time permits
OUTPUT
Assessment (Application) and Closure Strategy:
Final Formative/Summative Assessment:
Teacher questioning during modeling and instruction
Fist-to-Five at the end of lesson to see how their feeling
Students will move to table spots to write and draw about the inferences they made about my neighbors – this will be collected by teacher when the lesson is over
Closure:
Ask students to explain why we went through my neighbor’s garbage
Allow students to explain/question what the big ideas were
Ask for a fist-to-five to see how students are feeling about inferencing
“So, tomorrow, friends, we are going to keep practicing our new skills with characters in a story.”
* This assignment is formative only. You will upload it to Canvas and receive qualitative feedback.