Decembre Mullins

09/16/15

Teaching Reading: Mini Lesson Format (Calkins, 2001)

Targeted Literacy Strategy or Skill: Inferring from the cover and illustrations
Grade level: 5th
Objective: The student will be able to infer what the story is about by looking at the cover and the
illustrations. The student will also be able to know the difference between predictions and inferring.
Common Core State Standard/ PASS Standard: Standard 2(7C): Develop evaluations and
interpretations that exhibit careful reading and understanding.
Prior knowledge: (What students already know)
Students know how to read and write. Students also know what the definitions to infer and prediction are.
Students are able to use their schema about some images in their lives.
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.)
I noticed my students were able to tell me what a story is about after they have read it, but they were not
able to infer what a book was about when I showed them the cover and illustrations.

Materials Needed: STW, Readers Notebook, Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen, huge piece of
construction paper, clipboards with paper, and markers
Lesson from (Name your source including page number): Strategies That Work pg.140-141
Mentor Text: Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen
Student Groups (whole/small group/partners): This is a whole group project.
Mini Lesson Format:
Connect (AKA~ Anticipatory Set, Engagement/Pre-reading):
Read Tight Times to the class, this should not take more than ten minutes to complete. We have
been practicing how to explain what a story is about after we have read it, but to become better
writers and readers we need to learn how to gain insight into our book by learning how to infer
from the cover and illustrations. Inferring seems to be the same as predictions, but they actually
arent. Today we will be learning how to infer from the cover and illustrations from the book Tight
Times on our clipboards. When we have inferred something we will say it out loud and write it on
our chart paper. (Write these inferences on the huge piece of construction paper after you have
made two columns and labeled one side picture from text and the other inferences.)

Teach (Model/Explain)
As I said before predictions and inferring can seem to be the same thing, but they actually are
different. Predictions are for outcomes, events, or actions that are confirmed by the end of the
story. Prediction is one aspect of inferential thinking. I encourage you guys to consider the
outcome of any event or action each time you make a prediction. Read Tight Times. Show the
cover of the book, which shows a boy with a plate of lima beans, his fork holding one lonely lima

bean which he refuses to look at.

Active Engagement (AKA~ Check for Understanding: students try it out, teacher observes):
What can we infer from this cover? Wait for students to answer. What do you think the title
Tight Times means? Wait for students to answer. I will hang up the piece of construction paper
now and divide it into two columns, one headed Picture from text and the other Inference. I will
continue to go through the pages and ask the students to infer what the pictures mean, and help
them to not make predictions.

Link (AKA~ Closing the Lesson [with accountability for the skill/process])
Now that we can make inferences from the stories we will be able to determine if a story is right
for us to read before checking it out. We will continue to practice making inferences with our later
stories. Dont forget that predictions arent inferences.