Steps to Planning an Engaging Inference Lesson

Let’s walk through the steps of planning an inference lesson together! The skill of inferencing is one of my absolute favorites to teach! There are so many fun aspects, and the students always seem to really enjoy it. I am going to walk you through my thought process of how I plan my lessons to help students start making stronger inferences.

I do the bulk of my direct instruction and teaching during shared reading. This is the time that I read a mentor text with my students and model how good readers find inferences while reading. As students watch and notice the way I pick things out of the text to make inferences the magic of my inference lesson falls into place and they take their turn. To read more about how I structured my shared reading, visit this blog post.

Inference Lesson Planning Step 1

Choose a book to use as your mentor text.

Think about:

• What prior knowledge do your students have?
• What connections and experiences are close to their heart?
• What topic of story would inspire them to feel engaged and wanting to dig deeper into meanings?

I explain all of the steps to picking an inferencing mentor text as well as my favorites to use at this blog post.

Step 2 Think Aloud

While you are reading the mentor text you will be modeling a think aloud. This is the most important part of your inference lesson- it is where the main teaching is happening.

This part of your inference lesson is where you are showing your students your thought process for using the comprehension strategy.

While reading a text aloud to students, frequently pause and model how to notice a detail in the text or picture and think about something you know in order to make an inference.

Make sure to use the sentence starter (holding or pointing to the speech bubble often helps) and either hold the prop or do the gesture of the character each time. These concrete connections help deepen students’ understanding.

An example of how this could sound from a picture-

“I see tears in her eyes. When I am sad, I know that I cry tears. I can tell that she feels sad because she is crying.”

Then, ask the students

“Did you notice how I used the clue in the text and my own clue to make that inference? “

I am using our Izzy The Inferencer sentence frame “I can tell… because …” while explaining what about the book prompted these thoughts.

To plan your own think aloud think:

• What is in the pictures that is not said in the text?
• What are the characters feeling?
• Where is this taking place? (Is it evident/ how can you tell?)
• When is this taking place? (day/ night, season, etc.)
• What could the character be thinking?
• What does the character’s actions tell you?
• Why is the character making those choices?
• Does the dialogue have deeper meaning?
• How are the characters speaking? Why?
• Do the objects in the scene have any importance? (do you see a baseball bat that you could infer means someone likes baseball- think things like that)
• What is the character wearing? Can you infer the weather/ temperature?
• How old are the characters?

You need to use the text to guide what inferences are valuable to better understanding the story. Your inference lesson should explore the deeper meaning of the book that you choose.

Step 3 Interactive Student Practice

The next part of your inference lesson needs to be student practice. I use a shared reading model that has students interacting and practicing applying the skill during the read aloud.

They use the specific sentence frame from Izzy the Inferencer in this resource and respond as we are reading together.

The reason I emphasize using a sentence frame is because inferences can sometimes be a little abstract. Students can wonder into predicting, clarifying, synthesizing, and evaluating really easily. I find that the sentence frame keeps them focused on the meaning of inferencing and the specific focus of this inference lesson.

Step 5 HAVE FUN DURING THIS INFERENCE LESSON

Your inference lesson should be filled with intrigue, mystery, and fun!! Oh yeah, reading comprehension too! 🙂 Luckily the comprehension practice comes naturally as you are going through this thoughtful process with your students. In addition, there are so many beautifully written texts out there waiting for us to dive in and infer all of the hidden messaging.

If you are interested in learning about planning this type of shared reading with other reading skills, subscribe to my email. I am so passionate about discussing teaching reading, and I send out tips and freebies every week!!