Jessica Swain

09/17/15

Teaching Reading: Mini Lesson Format (Calkins, 2001)

Targeted Literacy Strategy or Skill: Making Inferences While Reading
Grade level: 2nd grade
Objective: The student will be able to full important information from the text that is not stated explicitly,
make inferences.
Common Core State Standard/ PASS Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7
Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate
understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
Prior knowledge: (What students already know)
Students know how to read stories and understand the basic meanings of most words. They also know
how to determine the main idea of the text.
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.)
Students were unable to read a story and draw conclusions from the text. Their comprehension ended with
the literal meaning of the words.

Materials Needed:
Lesson from (Name your source including page number): Comprehension from the Group Up by
Sharon Taberski
Mentor Text: In the Snow: Whos Been Here? By Lindsey Barrett George
Materials: Large image of book, large image of lightbulb, poster paper, marker, smaller version as handout
Student Groups (whole/small group/partners): whole group individual
Mini Lesson Format:
Connect (AKA~ Anticipatory Set, Engagement/Pre-reading): Ok class, today we are going to be
working on making inferences. I want you to quietly walk and sit on your pockets around the
perimeter of the rug. Im going to read you this book. It is called In the Snow: Whos Been Here?
By Lindsey Barrett George. Throughout the book, you will find pictures of things that give you
clues. I want you to pay special attention to these things.

Teach (Model/Explain) Read book, bring out large chart. In the book, we read these two
sentences. Can I get a volunteer to read them aloud? Let student read. Great! Now when I hear
these sentences it reminds me of a time that I went camping with my friends and we saw animal
tracks. My friends kept debating on if the tracks were from a coyote or a fox. So under the picture
of the book, we write exactly what the book said. Under the lightbulb, Im write words like
camping, coyote, and fox, anything that pops into my brain when I hear those sentences. This is

called inferring, because the author didnt tell us exactly. She wanted us to figure it out!

Active Engagement (AKA~ Check for Understanding: students try it out, teacher observes):
Now, raise your hand and tell me something you saw in the book, we will put it under the picture
of the book. Make list under book. Great! Now I want you to think about what you knew about
the picture and how you figured out what kind of animal it was. Raise your hand to tell me, we
will list that information under the picture of the lightbulb. Allow thought time, make list. So
class, this is called making an inference. The book didnt tell you right off the bat what kinds of
animals had been there before, but you could figure it out. Please go back to your seats and get out
a pencil, while I hand out a chart that looks like the one we did on the board. Allow time for
resituating. Now that were back, I will read you two sentences. I want you to write what you
think I am talking about under the lightbulb. Under the book, make a list of reasons why you
thought that is what I am talking about. Repeat.

Link (AKA~ Closing the Lesson [with accountability for the skill/process])
I want you to really think about this when you are doing your independent reading this afternoon.
If you find a place in your book where the author is inferring something, you can add it to the chart
we made today in class.