Small Group Reading Assignment

Inferring and Predicting

Christa JenningsCI 475November 14, 2011

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011

Inferring and Predicting Day 1 Grade Level: 3 English Speakers Number of Students: 3 Students Linguistic Backgrounds: All

Instructional Location: White Heath Elementary School minutes

Length of Instruction: 20

Standard(s) Addressed CC.K-12.R.R.1 Key Ideas and Details: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. Content Objectives Students will demonstrate their ability to make inferences and predictions based upon the text when asked and prompted to do so. Students will talk about why they were able to make their inferences and predictions. Title: The Dog and the Bone Publisher: Sundance (From a Basal kit) Theme(s) Morals of stories Be happy with what you have Strategy Focus Inferring from the text and predicting using clues in the text Language Objectives Students will be able to explain the words predict and infer/inference after they finish the lesson

Genre: Fable Text Structure: Narrative Level: Average Level with Sundance Vocabulary Infer Predict Assessment Spoken assessment based on whether students can contribute to a group inference and prediction

Add any relevant information that is essential to understanding the context of your lesson: This reading is designed to be used as a scaffolded teaching of inferring and predicting. This text is meant to be completed together as the first step to inferring and predicting. The story is printed on a laminated sheet that students can write on with a dry erase marker. Reflection NotesAfter teaching the lesson I feel as though the students did very well in making inferences. They seem to have done this before but possibly not used the same vocabulary for doing so. It was also slightly new for students to tell me why they made their inferences. The predictions were things that the students had done before as well but needed slightly more information on. Day: 1 Before (Introduction) -Hand out the story and give students a minute to look through the text by saying you may do a picture walk over the story before we get started.

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011

-Explain the concept of inferring to students since this is a completely new topic. -Inferring is what we call it when you use clues in the text to figure something out. Sometimes the author does not always tell you everything you want to know and you have to take a bunch of the clues and put them together to figure it out. -Explain the concept of making logical predictions -Predictions arent just guesses about a book. Would it make sense for me to guess that, in our book Goonie Bird Greene, Goonie Bird will go on a space ship next? -Expected answer no because Goonie Bird has been at school the whole book and not in outer space -Yes, when we make predictions we have to think about what has already happened in the story so that we can make predictions thatmake sense. During (Engaging in meaning making and strategy/skill practice) -Begin reading The Dog and the Bone together -I will start reading on this page please follow along. -Stop after portion where the dog looks at the bones and tries to take one from the butcher shop -What do you think this means about the dog. Can you tell me about some characteristics of the dog? -Expected answer The dog is hungry. -How can you tell the dog is hungry? I didnt see anywhere that the author told you that information? Can you underline the information that told you the dog was hungry? -Expected answer You can tell because the dog wants the biggest bone in the butcher shop which means he is probably very hungry -Good that is what we call inferring because you used something that the author didnt tell you to understand what was going on in the story. -Continue Reading (allow for popcorn reading since this is very popular in the classroom) -Stop after portion where the dog is looking at the other dog in the water with the bigger bone -What do you think about the dog right now? Are there new characteristics that you think the dog has? Can you underline the parts of the story that tell you these traits? -Expected Response The dog is greedy because he wants the bigger bone even though he already has a very big one -Good. You can tell the dog is kind of greedy because he always wants more than he already has. -Can you make a prediction about what you think the dog will do now? -Expected Response The dog will drop his bone to get the bone from the dog in the water. -Why do you think this? Can you underline the part that makes you think the dog will drop the bone? -The dog is drooling now and keeps thinking about the new bone that he wants. -Continue reading to see if the predictions have come true After (Clarifying key concepts, extending ideas) -When students finish reading discuss the methods we used to answer the questions I asked. -How did you know how to answer my questions today?

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011

-Expected answer I looked for clues in the story. -Discuss with students how we can use this technique during our other reading like in our book Goonie Bird Greene. -We can use clues whenever we read stories even if they are longer books. Lets try to make inferences and predictions next time we read Goonie Bird Greene to see if it works. Assessment: Assessment will be informal based upon student responses to the above questions. If students understand the topics then their answers should be close to my expected responses. In order to be sure of this make sure that all students get an opportunity to answer at least one question by going around the group for responses. How might you extend the lesson? This lesson could be extended by reading the text that we are reading as a group and making inferences and predictions. We may also use this method in other readings. Discuss how you differentiated instruction for your learners? My reading group is homogeneous so they are for the most part at the same reading level. However, in order to meet diverse learning styles I used different methods. I allowed children to read on their own for more visual learners. I also read aloud for those who are auditory learners and allowed underlining on the text so that students could review the information.

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011 Lesson 1 Reflection My lesson for day one of inferring and predicting went very much according to the plan that I had laid out. There were no deviations in part to the fact that we did the majority of this lesson together. This meant that if a student did not understand something I could address it right away. I think another reason the lesson went mostly as planned was because it was a topic that the students were fairly familiar with even if they did not normally use the same name for the skill. During the lesson I allowed students to popcorn read because they enjoy this style of reading. I noticed that one of the students read with much less fluency. This tended to make a difference in her inferring and predicting. I believe this was because she was concentrating on word recognition rather than reading beyond the text like I wanted them to. I could tell there were difficulties because her predictions and inferences were very similar to other students without much of her own thoughts. The other students seemed to do a very good job comprehending the text and reading beyond what was actually written. I feel as though I did a good job on this lesson as a teacher. I was explicit in my explanation and questioning and worked with scaffolding to make this lesson as effective as possible. This was necessary since this is the first time students have explicitly worked with this topic. I also feel my prompts were open enough to allow for students to answer freely without feeling like I expected one right answer. Although I felt effective today, tomorrow I hope to do more explicit explanation of the vocabulary so that students know the words for the skills they are incorporating into their reading.

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011

Inferring and Predicting Day 2 Grade Level: 3 English Speakers Number of Students: 3 Students Linguistic Backgrounds: All

Instructional Location: White Heath Elementary School minutes

Length of Instruction: 20

Standard(s) Addressed CC.K-12.R.R.1 Key Ideas and Details: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. Content Objectives Students will be able to make predictions based upon information from the text. Students will be able to talk about how predictions can be made in real life as well as in reading. Students will be able to justify their predictions and inferences. Title: The Lion Den Publisher: Sundance Reading (Basal Reader) Theme(s) Using inferences to figure things out in real life. Strategy Focus Inferring and Predicting Justifying predictions and inferences based upon the thought. Language Objectives Students will know what the words predict and infer mean.

Genre: Fable Text Structure: Narrative Level: Average Level Guided Reading Vocabulary Inferring Predicting Assessment Students will be assessed informally based upon the questions asked of them during the lesson.

Add any relevant information that is essential to understanding the context of your lesson: This is the second step in a scaffolded lesson from the Sundance Series. This lesson is meant to be done with some guidance however there is more individual work at this point than during The Dog and the Bone. Reflection NotesAfter teaching the lesson the students make inferences easily. I am concerned that they may not be doing this without prompts but I am unsure of another way to evaluate their ability. Predictions using information presented havent been assessed on as much as inferences have so tomorrow I will evaluate prediction making skills. Day: 2

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011

Before (Introduction) -Remember the things we talked about yesterday with inferring and predicting. Can you remind us what it means to infer? -Expected response Inferring means to figure things out from the story from the clues the author gives you even if they do just say the things. -Good. When we infer we use clues to help us figure out things from the story. -How do we make predictions when we read a story? -Expected response We have to make predictions that make sense. We use clues from the story to help us figure out what might happen next. -Yes. Predictions have to make sense with what we are reading. If they dont make sense then they are just guesses. -Today we are going to practice making more inferences and predictions. We are going to read The Lion Den and look to see how one of the main characters makes predictions and inferences.

During (Engaging in meaning making and strategy/skill practice) -Begin reading The Lion Den together. -I will read the first page and you will follow along. -Stop after passage about the lion pretending to be sick to get animals into his den to eat -What does this tell you about the lion? How do you know this? -Expected response The lion is sneaky. It says that he will trick the animals into coming into his den so he can eat them. -Ask for any other responses I like how you found the spot in your story that helped you figure out that the lion was sneaky. Can you underline that part for me? What do we call that? -Expected response we call it an inference -Have students read to the bottom of the next page on their own -What do you think that the deer will do? Will she go into the lions den to see him or not? -Expected response I dont think that the deer will go into the lions den. The author tells us that she is smart so I dont think she will fall for his tricks. -I think that you are probably right and I like how you figured that information out to make a prediction. Can you underline it? -Have students continue reading to the bottom of the final page. -What does the deer notice that makes her think she shouldnt go into the den? -Expected response she sees the footprints from the other animals that only go in and do not come out of the den. -What does the deer figure out from seeing these tracks? -Expected response she figures out that the animals arent coming out because the lion is eating them instead. -The deer is doing something in real life that weve been doing while we read. Do you know what it is? -Expected response She is inferring. She doesnt know for sure that the lion is eating the animals but she is making an inference based on the clues of the footprints -Great! We can make inferences when we read but we can also make them in real life

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011

sometimes.

After (Clarifying key concepts, extending ideas) -We make inferences to tell us about the characters in stories and to help us make our predictions. We can also make inferences in real life when we do not know something for sure but need to figure it out just like the deer did. Next time we read Goonie Bird Greene we are going to practice making predictions and inferences. Assessment: -I will assess based upon the answers given to the questions I ask. The answers should be close to my expected response with only slight prompting if necessary. How might you extend the lesson? Reading another short story can extend this lesson. It could also be extended by having students think about times when they have had to use clues in their life to make an inference about something important.

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011 Lesson 2 Reflection This lesson also went very close to the plan that I had laid out in my lesson plan. The only thing that changed slightly was that students had more information to supply than I had previously imagined. This was obviously a positive change to my lesson that I was happy to accommodate. I feel as though the lesson staying on pace was, again, due in part to my leading a good portion of the lesson in a group method rather than individual. The reader who had some difficulty yesterday seemed to be doing better at making her own predictions and inferences. I attempted to ask her the questions first so that she was required to tell me her own ideas rather than repeating those of the other two students. This seemed to work well and gave me a more accurate feeling that she does, in fact, understand making inferences and predictions. The students did very well at inferring and predicting today and had no problems with inferring things about character traits. They were also able to predict easily but this did not get as much attention during this lesson. I feel as though I did a good job teaching this lesson today. Allowing each student a chance to read the text on their own gave them a better pacing then they may otherwise have had while reading aloud. I also believe my questioning was not intrusive to their comprehension but did interrupt in spots where I would like them to be thinking about inferences and predictions. I did a better job today talking about the vocabulary since this wasnt touched upon as much yesterday. In order to improve tomorrow I will have the students focus more on predicting. This has been slightly left out since it is a skill that I know they use regularly. However, I believe it still can be reinforced.

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011

Inferring and Predicting Day 3 Grade Level: 3 English Speakers Number of Students: 2 Students Linguistic Backgrounds: All

Instructional Location: White Heath Elementary School minutes

Length of Instruction: 20

Standard(s) Addressed CC.K-12.R.R.1 Key Ideas and Details: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. Content Objectives Students will be able to make an appropriate prediction based upon information from the text. Students will be able to infer character traits or emotions based upon behavior Students will be able to justify their predictions and inferences. Title: Goonie Bird Greene Author: Lois Lowry Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Publishing Year: 202 Theme(s) Strategy Focus Using inferences to Inferring and figure things out in Predicting real life. Justifying predictions and inferences based upon the thought. Language Objectives Students will know what the words predict and infer mean.

Genre: Realistic Fiction Text Structure: Narrative Level: 3.8 Grade Level Equivalent Vocabulary Inferring Predicting Assessment Students will write down one prediction and then one reason they think it will come true.

Reflection NotesThe students seemed to really do well at understanding how to make a prediction that makes sense within the scope of the novel. They also did well at providing random input of inferences they made during the reading. Day: 3 Before (Introduction) -Today we will be using the skills we practiced the past 2 days when Ive worked with you. Can you tell me what one of them is and how to do it? -Expected response Inference, its when you use clues to help figure things out that the author doesnt tell you right on the page. -Great. And what is the other skill we practiced? -Expected response Predicting, is when you use information from the book to help you figure

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011

out what you think will happen next. -Now we are going to use this when we read Goonie Bird Greene. Lets read one page together before I let you go on your own. During (Engaging in meaning making and strategy/skill practice) -Read the first page of chapter 6 together. -After reading the portion about the children moving around in their seats and moving under their desk ask How do you think the students are feeling? How do you know? -Expected response they are bored. I can tell because sometimes I do these things when Im bored in class. -I want you both to make a prediction about what you think will happen next and write it on the paper I gave you. -Wait for students to finish -If you are done then I want you to write down why you think this is what will happen. -Wait for students to finish -Can you both share your predictions and reasons? -Share first prediction -To other student: Does this make sense to you? Did you find the same clues in the story we are reading? -Expected response: yes, I have a different prediction but her prediction makes sense. -Share second prediction. -To other student: Does this make sense to you? Did you find the same clues in the story we are reading? -Expected response: yes I found the same clues in the story so her prediction makes sense -Continue reading by telling students they may stop to share an inference or a prediction whenever they would like. After (Clarifying key concepts, extending ideas) -Review the fact that inferences and predictions should be used whenever we read stories because they help us to understand the story better and comprehend the information more. Assessment: Assessment is based upon the written responses to the prediction question. These will be assessed not on whether the predictions are correct but whether or not the predictions make sense and if the reasoning given is appropriate. There will also be informal assessment of inferences based upon the answers given when prompted. How might you extend the lesson? Students can discuss the books they are reading on their own to talk about what prediction they might make for that book. Discuss how you differentiated instruction for your learners? My readers are at the same reading level so that is not something that needs to be differentiated. My differentiation occurs through the use of verbal as well as visual information being presented. Students listen to other students use of inferring and predicting to help understand in a peer

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011

taught way.

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011 Lesson 3 Reflection Throughout the entire process of planning my lessons and teaching them my Content Standard stayed the same. This was important to me so that this could be more of a coherent unit that increased understanding from one lesson to the other rather than simply jumping around like many reading skills are taught. My objectives also remained similar because my end goal was worked to in each lesson. My students were able to complete my objectives very well. They were willing to make inferences and predictions based upon information they gathered in their stories and shared them well. There did not seem to be too many troubles since these seem to be things students do without realizing it. This group was classified as a low-middle group. The amount of in-depth reading the students were able to do was very surprising to me and taught me that reading at the correct level is a great way to teach skills. If I were to continue working with these students I think that I would work on summarizing as a necessary skill. At the beginning of every lesson I asked students to tell me what had happened the last time they read. This was very difficult for the students. They often gave me too much information and so it was difficult to figure out what they believed was or was not important. A background on summarizing may help students remember what they have already read and therefore comprehend the whole of the text better. I feel as though my teaching went well in that I allowed for a great deal of student input. This was evident through my questioning skills. I also feel as though my scaffolding of the lesson was very effective. This was evident as I helped students move from completely guided work to more independent work. If I continued working on this

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011 skill past 3 days I would also have moved to completely independent work in order to assess the skills that were taught. I think that I had a harder time with creating my lesson plan exactly. It was difficult for me to think of the questions I would ask and what the expected responses would be. This was because I tend to improvise my questions. However, I do see the value in thinking of questions because it did help me to make sure my lesson progressed through the skills. The students seemed to understand the material very well. This was evident especially when they made outside inferences to books that we were reading. This occurred when one student said Charming in Sisters Grimm did a lot of the same type of things that the dog did in this story. Maybe he is greedy too. This showed me that the students were taking the information to a higher level of reasoning. They were very active readers in this regard, which is recommended by Put Reading First on page 48. Because all students tended to be on the same level I did not differentiate much. However, I did change my questioning to reach one student first since I did not feel she was giving me her own answers.

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011 Final Reflection on My Small Group Lessons When I first began to think about planning my lessons for this small group project I was overwhelmed about the skill that I should teach students. I knew which group of students I would be working with and did not want to make the task too difficult or too simple for this group. After discussing the project with my cooperating teacher she suggested that I teach inferring and predicting as the skill that students should know. I was very overwhelmed at this prospect. Inferring and predicting involve reading deeply into a text rather than just simply looking at what is on the surface. Therefore it is a very difficult topic for some students to grasp and I was afraid that these students would not be able to. I began my planning by using a basal reader provided by my cooperating teacher. This basal is set up in a scaffolded manner, which I really enjoy and have used before. Because of how the scaffolding is set up I planned all three of my lessons from the very beginning. In retrospect this is probably not something I would do in the future. While my students did very well and my planning stuck very much to schedule there were a few very small changes made that I might have been able to use to improve my future lessons. I also probably would not plan the future lessons as closely as I did these lessons. Scripted lessons are difficult to teach because occasionally my students would begin to discuss something that I thought was very important but completely took me off the plan of my scripted lesson. This was evident when children stopped to share inferences and predictions more times than I had originally planned for them to do.

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011 The thing I found most difficult when teaching these small group lessons was the wording to use. Inferring and predicting are very difficult concepts to verbalize and therefore I had to think about the exact things I would use to describe them beforehand. I then tried to use the same words the whole time. I often used the word clue because I felt that this was the most relatable to students and helped to make understanding how to infer a little bit more concrete. It was also difficult to describe predicting because often times my students felt that their prediction had to be right. I made sure to mention multiple times that it did not matter if their prediction came true but whether or not their prediction made sense. While this was challenging there were more natural things in my teaching. Doing something like scaffolding was very natural. I first did the inferring and predicting together, then let the students have slightly more freedom, and final I let them make these inferences and predictions on their own. It makes sense to me to help students at a different degree the more comfortable they get with the skill. This is something that I feel I did well on because it was so natural to me. I learned a great deal about teaching during this three-day lesson series. One of the main things I felt that I learned was about my students. It is difficult to always reach all the students when we are doing full group lessons. However, by working in small groups over a three day period I was able to get a better understanding of what skills these students had and what things I believe they need to work on. This was evident in my first lesson when I realized that one of these students read with much less fluency than the other two readers. I also learned that her peers easily influenced her answers when talking about predicting and inferring. Therefore the next day I was able to ask her

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011 questions first rather than after I had already asked the other two students. I also learned that one of my readers was very concerned with his predictions being correct. He would look ahead in the text before making a prediction. Therefore I had the students close the book to make their prediction and reinforced the idea that predictions can just be guesses that use information to make them plausible. Along with learning about the students I worked with I also learned a great deal about my teaching strategies and myself. I learned that it is very important for me to preplan my lessons, however, I am not someone that can completely work off of a scripted lesson plan. I do need to explicitly plan how to explain some things because they are difficult for me to improvise. However, I enjoy being able to use what a student is telling me and continue to elaborate on that without feeling like I am completely missing the lesson plan. During my initial lesson students were much more competent at inferring than I had imagined. Therefore one student mentioned that it was similar to the book we were reading as a full class. She pointed out that one of our characters in Sisters Grimm had done some things similar to the dog and so we could say that he was greedy too. Because this was not something I had planned on I felt thrown off of my scripted lesson. Therefore, in the future I feel like writing down the things I need to say exactly but also jotting down notes for most of the lesson would best serve me. This will allow me to feel as though I have more freedom to improvise as necessary as well as to allow the lesson to take a more natural course. This is especially true for small group lessons since I will receive more student feedback.

Christa Jennings CI 475 Final Reflection November 14, 2011 Since this is the first time I have taught a small group lesson on a reading strategy I feel as though there are a few goals that I can set for myself in order to better serve my students in the future. The first goal I have is to practice explaining topics in a clear and concise manner. This is an area that I felt I had more struggles with than other places. Therefore practicing my explanations in advance will allow me to best teach my students about strategies they must know to become better readers. A second goal I have is to better utilize the novel that we are reading in guided reading groups to teach the strategy. I recognize that with this lesson that was harder since the novel was picked in advance without planning the skill that will be taught. However, this has given me the goal of always picking novels that can teach the strategies that I have planned on. Some novels are better for some strategies than others. Planning a small group reading lesson was very difficult for me since it was a different set up than my normal lessons. Through planning and teaching these lessons I have learned a great deal about my students as well as about myself as an educator. I have identified some goals that I would like to work on through more small group reading lessons in the future. These will hopefully make me a better educator overall.