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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Inferences

Making inferences is a big third grade skill. I'm always looking for ways to make this very abstract thinking process more concrete, more hands-on.  With a little help from Abby at Third Grade Bookworm and the book Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor (which Abby recommended on her blog and I have since devoured!  LOVE IT! - A must have book! And a quick read - lots of hand-on ways to teach reading) I think tomorrow's lesson on inferences will be a true anchor lesson. 


I have gathered several objects which in my mind tell a story. I'm going to tell the kids I found a backpack at my door. I'm thinking someone on my block thinks it's mine, but it's not. I'll tell the kids I'm hoping they can help me figure out what neighbor the backpack belongs to. I am going to have the kids work with a partner, record the objects, and brainstorm what you might infer about the owner. I have posted the recording sheet below. The objects I put in the backpack are: a scrapbooking magazine, a baby juice cup, a toddler sized shirt, a Highlights magazine, a coffee mug (all of the former objects came from the thrift store for under a buck!), an empty water bottle, beads and string, coloring book and crayons, an ace bandage, yesterday's newspaper still rubber banded, and a stuffed animal. In my mind some of the things you could infer are that the backpack belongs to a mother of two girls, one a toddler, and the other an artsy young lady. The mother is a recycler (the empty bottle) and the backpack was used on Saturday (the paper) and probable lost sometime Saturday since the paper was never read. And so much more! I'm excited to see what kind of inferences the kids make! 


Click on the picture for the recording sheet.

Third Grade Bookworm

2 comments:

Abby said...

I LOVE this!! I can't wait to use it with my kids! :) Thanks for sharing!!

Abby

Mrs. Roper said...

I love Comprehension Connections - I just finished a 2 week unit on inferring and it was lots of fun, I really like your twist to the garbage lesson - which is better b/c my students are still in shock that I 'Stole' someones garbage :-)
One lesson that the kids totally loved and helped them make inferences was using the lyrics to "The Climb" during shared reading, of course before we read the words we listened to the song and again at the end of the lesson. Kids were highly engaged and their thinking was very impressive!

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