Lesson Plan 5: Comprehension: Making Inferences

Grade 5 Length of Lesson: 45-60min.

Desired Results
State Content Standard(s):
• 5.RL. 1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what a text says explicitly and when drawing
inferences from the text.
• 5.W.3.3 Write narrative compositions in a variety of forms that-- Use precise and expressive vocabulary
and figurative language for effect.
Central Focus: Essential Question(s):
The central focus for this learning segment will be • What does it mean to visualize, and how does this
comprehension. Students will understand how to help you as a writer?
analyze the text in order to gain meaning or make • How do making inferences help you understand what
sense of the text. you are writing about?
• Big Idea: Students will be focusing on making • How do clues help you make inferences?
inferences by using text clues, pictures, and How will you use what we practiced today when you
author’s purpose or meaning write on your own?
Student objectives (outcomes):
Students will be able to:
• Make inferences about what they see in a photograph
• Use clues or evidence in the photograph to make inferences
• Visualize to understand the photograph to create a narrative text
Assessment Evidence
Performance Task(s): Other Evidence:
• Students will make inferences about a • I will conduct individual formal formative
photograph of the largest footbridge in the assessments based on student’s completed stories
world. They will create a narrative story and graphic organizers
based off of said picture and inferences by • I will use a rubric in which to assess the students’
using the evidence from the photograph and work
their inferred sensory details. • I will conduct informal assessments from student’s
responses to questions and “turn and share”
discussions

Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
• This is the core of lesson plan that lists and briefly describes:
o The students will be viewing a photograph of the longest footbridge in the world that is located in
the Swiss Alps and is projected onto the screen. The students will be discussing their inferences
and sensory details as a class and putting them into a graphic organizer that they will later use to
include these things into their writing. The students will use their making inferences and
visualizing strategies to create a story about the photograph. They will be using complete
sentences and proper punctuation. They will be writing using evidence from the photograph, and
their inferred sensory details to create their narrative stories.
o I will conduct a short mini lesson where I will review how to make an inference and how to
visualize. I will lead a class discussion about the sensory details that the students can infer from
the picture and will have each student keep track of their sensory details and inferences on a
graphic organizer. I will remind students that they need to use their graphic organizers to help
them create a story that their audience can visualize. I will also be reminding students that they
need to use full sentences and proper punctuation. I will walk around the room assisting students
with any questions and checking for student’s understanding (informal assessment). I will also be
assisting any students that are struggling throughout the activity. At the end of the activity I will
ask students to share their stories with a partner and discuss their peers inferences and
visualizations. I will collect the student’s graphic organizers and stories and assess them based
on a rubric.
o I will use formative assessments used in the days prior to this lesson. I will ask for verbal
confirmation of students understanding throughout the mini lesson and their activity time. I will
 use a formal-formative assessment (writing rubric) at the end of the lesson (student’s stories and
graphic organizers) to review student’s current comprehension.
o This lesson draws on student’s previous knowledge by building on what the student’s learned
recently about making inferences and visualizing. It also requires students to use their
comprehension of using sensory details to create visuals for their audience. This lesson requires
students to connect their comprehension strategies of making inferences and visualizing and use
that knowledge to assist them in composing a story. They are using their previous knowledge of
writing strategies and skills to create their narrative stories.
Resources and Materials:
• Photograph from Scholastic Magazine (project to class via computer) (Instructional Material 5.1)
https://sn56.scholastic.com/content/dam/classroom-magazines/sn56/issues/2017-18/091817/a-walk-in-
the-sky/SN56-091817-Bridge-Popup.jpg
• Students writing journals (composition not spiral) (Student Artifact 5.1)
• IEP accommodations (iPADs)
• Graphic organizers: Story writing (Struggling starters only) (Instructional Material 5.3)
• Graphic organizers: Sensory details, Evidence and Inferences (30 copies) (Instructional Material 5.2)
• Rubrics (30 copies)
Required Accommodations/Modifications:
• There are four students with IEP’s in the classroom. Every student with an IEP is allowed to use
shortened statements when filling out assessments as long as they can prove their knowledge of the
content area. These students will be allowed to use their iPADs for completing their stories. They can
use talk-to-text dictation to demonstrate understanding.
Additional Modifications for Individual Students:
• For students who are struggling with writing and comprehension, I will give them a graphic organizer that
will assist them in creating their stories. It shows these students how a story can be set up. (Instructional
Material 5.3)
Extending the Lesson
• I can extend the lesson by having students review another photographs or a series of photographs from
the same scene and create stories based on their inferences.
nd
Adapted from Understanding by Design, Expanded 2 Edition (2005) by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
Instructional Material 5.1 (Photo to Inference)
Instructional Material 5.2 (Graphic Organizer)
Grading Rubric: