LESSON FIVE: Making inferences about problem and solution
LESSON DESCRIPTION
This lesson focuses on making inferences about problems and solutions. Students will practice making inferences in general and will then apply that skill to problems and solutions in a provided passage about an influential American woman.
GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS ADDRESSED
R3C Use details from text to make inferences about problems and solutions
§ Sources of literature
o None
§ Supplies
o An unusual or unfamiliar object
o 3- by 5-inch index cards (optional)
o A cloze passage with key words and/or phrases removed and replaced with blanks
o Passage about a famous American woman who encountered multiple problems (for the formative assessment)
o Lesson Five formative assessment scoring guide
§ Handouts provided
o Lesson Five formative assessment prompt
§ Words to know
o infer
o graphic organizer
For the formative assessment the student will read a passage about an influential American woman, identify a problem and its solution from that passage and explain based on that what the student can infer about the woman’s life, using a detail from the passage as support. Scoring guide provided.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
1. To introduce the idea of inferences, use the “Show and Not Tell” technique. Bring into the classroom one or more unusual or unfamiliar objects. (This might be some kind of sporting equipment, a kitchen gadget, a part from a machine, a medical tool, etc., as long as it is something that most students are not likely to have previously experienced.) Show the item to the students, perhaps even passing it around the room, and have students think about what they believe the item is or does and why they think that, recording their thoughts on a piece of paper. Use the think-pair-share technique to have students share their ideas in pairs and finally as a whole class. On the black/white board, overhead, etc. use a two-column chart to keep track of students’ guesses on one side and their reasons for each guess on the other. DO NOT confirm or correct students’ guesses or indicate correctness in any way.
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Strategy
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Rather than recording their ideas and reasons for them on a piece of paper, students could use index cards, recording what they believe the object is or does on one side and why they believe that on the other. |
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Idea |
For information on the “Show and Not Tell” and think-pair-share strategies, see Zwiers, 2004. |
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Questions for Students
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What do you think this item is, or what might it be used for? Why do you think that? What clues about the item itself help you make a guess as to its use? What previous experience or knowledge do you have that influences your guess? |
2. After all students have shared their responses and those have been recorded, give students a clue, either verbal or visual, such as another item that goes with the first one or a piece of information about the first item that might hint at what it is without entirely giving it away. Once again have each student formulate his or her own new idea (or perhaps stay with the original thought) about what the item is and record it and then use the think-pair-share strategy to come to a conclusion with a classmate’s help. Again ask students to share their ideas and record their guesses and their reasons for each in a two-column chart.
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Strategy
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It may be helpful to display the second two-column chart beside the original one in order for students to consider how their thinking changed with the addition of the clue.
An example of a possible item is a tool for holding a match in order to reach into a candle, like a jar candle, to light it without burning one’s fingers. The “clue” could be a box or book of matches. |
3. Tell students what the object is (maybe someone guessed correctly!) and ask students to describe the process they used to narrow down their guess. Explain to students that those guesses are called “inferences” and that the process they went through is called “making an inference.” Explain that we do this many times every day in real life as well as when we are reading various passages or watching television or a movie. We are constantly thinking about what we see, hear or read and using that information to make inferences and even predictions.
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Strategy
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Emphasize to students that a correct guess isn’t what’s most important here; it’s the process for arriving at that guess based upon available clues and pervious knowledge or experience. Be certain students understand that sometimes we make inferences (as well as predictions, which are inferences about future information or what will happen in the future) that we later learn are wrong. Note that even if an inference is later proven wrong, we still learn something – to make a different inference in a similar situation in the future.
It may be useful to write the definition of infer – “to draw meaning from a combination of clues in the text without explicit reference to the text” – on the black/white board, overhead, etc. for students to record in their notes. (It may be necessary to modify the language of this definition to make it more appropriate for fifth-graders.) It may also be useful to equate an inference with an “educated guess” or hypothesis, a term students will be introduced to in science if they haven’t already been.
Explain to students that our own pervious personal experiences and knowledge play a role in the inferences we make. Because we all have had different experiences, we won’t all necessarily make the same inferences about a given situation, object, etc. |
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Idea |
For information on inferences, see the Communication Arts Grade Level Expectations Glossary of Terms, 2004. |
4. To practice the skill of inferring and apply it to written text, use the cloze technique. Provide students with a passage that has been retyped with some important words and phrases eliminated and replaced with blanks. Use the think-aloud strategy to model making an inference about what belongs in the first blank by making note of clues in the context and using personal experience or prior knowledge. Underline or highlight the words or phrases that provide clues that lead to the inference and fill in the blank with your speculation. After modeling the technique, have students do the same to complete the rest of the passage. Then lead students in discussing their answers with the whole class; students should defend their inferences using clues in the text and their own background knowledge.
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Strategy |
When retyping the passage, be sure to create blanks in some places that require students to use phrases rather than single words to complete the sentence/thought.
To further support the theme, the passage could be about a famous American woman, but it doesn’t have to be. Any passage appropriate for eliminating key words/phrases will work.
Make sure students understand that nearly any answer in the blank is acceptable as long as it makes sense based upon other information in the passage. Make it clear that the important thing to learn is to think about the sentence, paragraph and/or longer passage and what makes the most sense in the blank, thus the process of using clues in the context to infer what the blank space should say.
After sharing possible responses to complete the blanks in the passage, it may be useful to display the original passage for students to check their inferences against. Note that in some cases students may have inferred the correct idea but used different words since there is often more than one way to express a thought.
It is crucial that the teacher ask good questions that lead to inferences in order for students to learn to infer on their own; the skill of inferring takes repeated practice in a variety of situations. |
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Idea
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For information on the cloze technique, see Zwiers, 2004. |
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Questions for Students
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What word or phrase might belong in the blank? What clues (words or phrases) in the passage hint at what belongs in the blank? What do you already know that helps you guess at what belongs in the blank? Is it possible that more than one word or phrase might work in the blank? Is it possible that the same idea can be expressed more than one way? |
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Technology Connections |
It may be useful to display the original passage intact on the overhead, Smart Board, NotePad, etc. so that students can compare their inferences to the author’s original ideas. |
(Day 2?)
5. Remind students that this lesson focuses on making inferences but particularly on making those as they relate to problems and their solutions. Ask students for explanations (not necessarily definitions) of what “problem” and “solution” mean. Write the various responses for each word on the black/white board, overhead, Smart Board, NotePad, etc., and then lead the class in using information from their explanations to write a definition the class can agree on for each of the two words. It may be useful to have students copy those explanations/definitions into their notes for future reference.
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Strategy
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Be certain students’ explanations/definitions are in their own words and that they aren’t consulting a dictionary or other resource for those. It is best to have an explanation/definition that students can understand and make use of.
It will probably prove useful to draw students’ attention to “solve” as the root word of solution and to discuss what it means to solve something, such as a riddle, a math problem, a crime, etc. |
6. Ask students to suggest categories of problems people face – for example, with family, at school, in completing homework, in the world, etc. As a class, create a graphic organizer frame with those categories (a chart or a web would work well) that students can use to record some of the problems they experience or are aware of other people having. Eventually they are also going to consider solutions for those problems, so be certain the graphic organizer allows for that. Have each student copy the class-generated graphic organizer onto a blank piece of paper.
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Questions for Students
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In what kinds of situations or settings do you encounter problems? What kinds of problems do you encounter? Do those problems involve other people? What kind(s) of graphic organizer would be appropriate for recording several categories of problems? How could we modify this graphic organizer or create one that would allow us to record not only problems but their possible solutions as well? |
7. Students should then brainstorm problems they and/or others face, whether yet solved or not, and record those in the appropriate area on the graphic organizer. After allowing students a few minutes to complete this activity, ask them to share their ideas and record those in the graphic organizer the class created.
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Strategy
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It may be useful to generate as a class several graphic organizer forms and then let each student choose the one he/she prefers. This reinforces the idea that we all learn differently and have different strengths.
Students may record some problems that are personal and they are reluctant to share with the class as a whole. Make certain students understand that they don’t have to share everything they write down, just a sampling of their ideas.
When recording the class responses for all to see, it is best if they can be generalized to apply to many students rather than just one. |
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Technology Connections
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The class-created graphic organizer and the responses later recorded in it can be displayed on a black/white board or on an overhead, Smart Board, NotePad, etc. for all to see. |
8. Return students’ attention to the class-written definition of solution. Choose one of the yet-unsolved problems identified and recorded on the class-developed graphic organizer – one that most if not all students can relate to -- and ask students for possible solutions to that problem. Record those solutions in the appropriate space on the graphic organizer.
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Strategy
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It is not necessary at this point that students evaluate the proposed solutions to identify the one they believe will be the best or most effective, but it is important to guide students in correcting any solutions that are far-fetched or unfeasible. (Proposing and evaluating the effectiveness of solutions are sixth-grade and above skills, but students should be able to offer solutions to these particular problems since they are ones the students actually face.) |
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Questions for Students
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How might this problem be solved? Is there more than one possible solution?
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(Day 3?)
9. Play for students a clip from an appropriate television program or movie that includes a character’s problem and how that is solved. As students watch the clip, have them identify the problem and its solution and record those to be shared with the class. After watching the clip and after all students have recorded their responses, lead the class in discussing those, correcting any errors as needed. Also discuss how the problem affected the character and what it suggests about the character’s life (calling for the student to make an inference).
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Strategy
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It will be necessary to predetermine what segment of the recorded television program or movie is to be shown. It may be advisable to play a clip that shows several problems faced by the same or different characters and the solutions to those problems to allow students more practice in identifying problems and their solutions.
Explain to students that characters in fiction or nonfiction literature, television shows, movies, etc., face problems just like those we encounter in real life. Students may record their problem-and-solution responses in a graphic organizer like the one that is to be used for the formative assessment, or an index card can again be used, with the problem on one side and its solution on the other. |
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Questions for Students
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In what ways are the problems characters in literature, television programs, movies, etc. face like those we experience in the real world? What problem(s) did the character(s) in the video clip face? How was each problem solved? (OR What was the solution to each problem? – Students should realize that these two questions are asking for the same kind of response.) What effect did the problem and solution have on the character or his/her life? What can we infer about the character’s life based upon the problem(s) he/she faced? |
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Technology Connections |
A video-cassette recorder or DVD player will be necessary for showing the video clip for this activity. |
10. Distribute the Lesson Five Formative Assessment Prompt and Scoring Guide as well as a passage about a famous American woman who encountered multiple problems, or the Helen Keller passage provided. Each student should read the passage and complete the work independently.
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Assessment
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For the formative assessment, students will read a passage about a famous American woman who encountered multiple problems. Students will then answer a constructed response question identifying one of those problems and its solution and using a detail from the passage to explain/infer the impact that problem had on the woman’s life. |