Reader�s Workshop Mini-Lesson Template

							                Reader’s Workshop Mini-Lesson Template
Comprehension Strategy (Unit of Study): Inferring
Mini-Lesson Topic: Intro to Inferring
Materials needed: inferring cards, intro to inferring chart
                        This year we have learned about…
Connection
                        what good readers do to comprehend text. We’ve learned about
                        how to make connections to the text. We’ve also learned how
                        asking questions can help us to think deeper about what the
                        author is telling us.




                        Today, I’m going to teach you…
                        what it means to infer meaning.


Teach                   Today, I’m going to show you how…
                        to use your background knowledge and clues to infer meaning.
Mentor Text:
                        First, we are going to play a game. I’d like for you to watch me
                        and try to guess what I am doing.
Anchor chart:           (Play a game of charades with the class. As students guess
                        discuss how they used their background knowledge and clues
                        from your body language to come to that conclusion.)
                        Turn to a partner and pretend to do something. See if they can
                        infer what you are doing.

                        Now we are going to see if we can infer using text. I’m going to
                        read a sentence from these cards. Watch as I infer what it
                        means and as I fill out this graphic organizer. (Read a few of
                        the cards. Model inferring from sentence.. Complete the
                        graphic organizer for intro to inferring: “Clues/background
                        knowledge/what we inferred”)


Active                  Now it’s your turn to try…

Engagement              inferring. (Read a sentence from the inferring cards). Turn and
(Turn and talk to       talk to a neighbor about what you are inferring is happening.
partner,                (Listen in to students’ conversation to check for understanding).
share with group)       Who has an idea of what’s going on in this situation? What clues
                        did you use? (Do several more of these and complete the
                        graphic organizer together).
Link              Today, I taught you…
                  what it means to infer. We learned that we can infer using our
                  background knowledge (schema) and clues that we see or read.

                  When you go off to read today and every time you read,
                  you’re going to…
                  infer the meaning of text by using your background knowledge and
                  clues the author has given you in the text.
Independent       Students to conference with:

reading time      Possible future teaching points:
(conferences)
Sharing           Students to share:
(individual,
                  Focus: Did anyone infer answers to questions they had using
partner, group)   clues from the text and their background knowledge?