Cream of the Crop Comprehension: Inferring

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Subject Area

English Language Arts

Grade(s)

6

Overview

This activity is a graphic organizer that is completed via Google Slides. This graphic organizer is to be used with the ReadWorks passage "Top Crops." The passage can be read as a whole group, in collaborative groups, or individually. The graphic organizer guides students to use the textual evidence in the passage and their own background knowledge to infer why students in the passage like to go to school in the summer. 

This resource was written as part of the ALEX Resource Development Summit. 

Phase

During/Explore/Explain
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 6

ELA21.6.2

Make inferences and draw logical conclusions from the content and structures of informational texts, including comparison and contrast, problem and solution, claims and evidence, cause and effect, description, and sequencing.

UP:ELA21.6.2

Vocabulary

  • Inferences
  • Logical conclusions
  • Content
  • Structures
  • Informational text
  • Comparison and contrast
  • Problem and solution
  • Claims and evidence
  • Cause and effect
  • Description
  • Sequencing

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Explicit information in a text, like its content and structure, can be used to draw conclusions and support inferences.
  • Text can be structured in different ways, depending on the type of information that is being communicated.
  • A text that follows a comparison and contrast structure will describe how two or more things are alike or different.
  • Problem and solution text structure describes a problem and how the problem was solved or could be solved.
  • Claim and evidence structure proposes a particular claim, then provides evidence to support the claim.
  • Cause and effect text structure describes an event (the cause) and the consequence or result of the event (the effect).
  • A description text structure describes a topic by listing characteristics, features, attributes, and examples.
  • Sequencing text structure presents ideas or events in the order in which they happen.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify the structure of informational texts, including comparison and contrast, problem and solution, claims and evidence, cause and effect, description, and sequencing.
  • Make inferences and draw conclusions from the content and structure of informational texts.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Informational text provides explicit information in its content and structure that can be used to draw conclusions and support inferences.
  • Informational text generally follows a particular structure, and identifying this structure can help them better comprehend and analyze the text.

Learning Objectives

The students will: 

  • use textual evidence and background knowledge to make inferences while completing a graphic organizer. 

I can:

  • make inferences using textual evidence and my own background knowledge while completing a graphic organizer. 

Activity Details

The teacher will share the Google Slideshow with students via an online classroom platform like Google Classroom. Additionally, the teacher will provide students with a copy of the ReadWorks passage "Top Crops." The passage can be shared digitally via an online classroom platform. The teacher can also choose to provide the students with hard copies of the passage by printing the passage and making copies for each student. The students will read the ReadWorks passage "Top Crops." The passage can be read as a whole group, in collaborative groups, or individually. Students will complete the graphic organizer to connect the textual evidence about why the students want to go to school in the summer to their own background knowledge. Students will then compose an inference in the final box of the graphic organizer. 

Assessment Strategies

The graphic organizer can be used as a formative assessment. In the second box of the graphic organizer, students should include textual evidence to show why students like to go to school in the summer. The third box of the graphic organizer should include any background knowledge that the student has about attending school in the summer. The final box of the graphic organizer should include the inference that the student made based on the textual evidence and their background knowledge. 

Variation Tips

  • The writing in the second, third, and last boxes of the graphic organizer can be deleted. The teacher can then download the Google Slide as a PDF to print. Copies could then be made for each student. 
  • Sentence frames could be added to the graphic organizer as follows: 
  • 2nd box: In the passage, the author states __________. 
  • 3rd box: Students like/do not like attending school in the summer because __________. 
  • 4th box: I can infer that the students like going to school because _______. 
  • If you are interested in other parts of the lesson, I have included links for the Before and After activities.

Background / Preparation

  • The teacher will share the Google Slideshow with the students via the online platform of their choice. 
  • The teacher will share the ReadWorks passage "Top Crops" with the students. 
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