Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Learning Lab: Every Picture Has a Story
Smithsonian Education presents "Every Picture Has a Story". Teachers can download this comprehensive teaching package in which students examine some of the millions of photographs in the Smithsonian. This amazing teaching package comes...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: I Can Infer About a Story or an Event [Pdf]
Students will use this graphic organizer to help them make an inference about a story or an event. Students will list the literal text evidence and then make an inference about the text evidence.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Expand Story or History Text Based Dialog[pdf]
Students will use graphic organizers to help them make inferences about historical figures' feeings and motives. Students will summarize the information during an extension activity.
Other
Freedom on the Move: Telling Their Stories
The "Telling Their Stories" lesson plan guides students through the era of enslavement through the lens of those who chose to flee as a form of resistance. Using the Freedom on the Move database of runaway ads, this lesson centers on the...
Yale University
Yale University: Elements of the Short Story
This unit from the Yale University on elements of the short story is designed to develop student comprehension skills, particularly making inferences and generalizing. It also involves students in reading a number of short stories to...
SMART Technologies
Smart: Making Inferences
Inferencing is finding clues and using background knowledge to determine an explanation from facts in a passage or story. It's "reading between the lines" of a story to understand what the author doesn't state.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 1 Reading: Literature: 5th Grade Quote Accurately
An article describing the importance of making inferences while reading a story.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Harold Washington's Speech [Pdf]
"Harold Washington's Acceptance Speech" is a one page, excerpt from a speech given by Harold Washington after being elected as mayor of Chicago on April 12, 1983. It is followed by constructed-response questions which require students to...
Read Works
Read Works: Drawing Conclusions 1st Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] A three-lesson unit on drawing conclusions through which students learn how to use pictures and context clues to discover a missing word and to draw conclusions about a story. Students also use...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement:charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall Paper" Writing Women
A close reading of "The Yellow Wall-paper" employing the analysis of such literary concepts as setting, narrative style, symbol, and characterization. Students will write an essay discussing what the story suggests about middle-class...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Women in Ancient Rome
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat"
In this lesson, students will examine the relationship of man and nature as portrayed in "The Open Boat," based on Crane's suffering from a shipwreck on The Commodore in which he spent thirty hours on a small boat at sea before being...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Molly of Denali: Dream Tube Lesson Plan
Use this comprehensive instructional activity as part of a comprehensive literacy, STEM, or social studies unit in which children will be using informational texts. In the "Dream Tube" animated story from the PBS Kids series Molly of...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Molly of Denali: A Splash of Mink Lesson Plan
In the animated 11-minute story "A Splash of Mink," from the PBS KIDS series MOLLY OF DENALI, Molly and Trini must find a remedy after being sprayed by a mink. Despite getting advice from various sources about how to get rid of the...
Read Works
Read Works: Drawing Conclusions Kindergarten Unit: Short Story
[Free Registration/Login Required] A lesson plan teaching students to make conclusions based on a sentences and short texts. Students use textual cues to explain how the conclusions were reached. Ideas for direct teaching, guided...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Understanding and Analysis of Literary Text: Meter and Rhyme
OnTRACK English II Reading, Module 3, Lessons 1-12, and Practice Lessons 1-3. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of poetry, drama, fiction, and literary non-fiction, and provide...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: The Challenge [Pdf]
"The Challenge" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about a boy who is careless and loses or breaks things. When he broke his drum by using knives on it, his mother gave him a challenge to learn responsibility. It is followed by...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: What a Character!
This lesson opens up the world of writing by introducing students to the point of view in a story. Students will have the opportunity to read a new version of a classic story and see how it changes when it is written from another...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: The Little Red Hen [Pdf]
"The Little Red Hen" is a one page fable about the other animals not helping the little red hen plant wheat, harvest it, or bake the bread, so they did not get to eat it either. It is followed by constructed-response questions which...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Columbus and the Egg [Pdf]
"Columbus and the Egg" is a one page, historical fictional passage about Christopher Columbus's return to Spain after discovering America. Some people said anyone could sail the seas. Columbus used an egg to make a point. It is followed...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Columbus and the Egg [Pdf]
"Columbus and the Egg" is a one page, historical fictional passage about Christopher Columbus's return to Spain after discovering America. Some people said anyone could sail the seas. Columbus used an egg to make a point. It is followed...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Miss Nelson Is Back
First graders tell what is happening in the story, but use words and phrases from the story to tell how they know.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Esperanza Rising: Learning Not to Be Afraid to Start Over
In this instructional activity students will explore some of the contrasts that Esperanza experiences when she suddenly is forced to leave the life of a wealthy landowner's daughter surrounded by servants to become a servant herself...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: I Can Infer Character Traits and Support [Pdf]
Students can use this graphic organizer while making inferences about characters in a story or history text. Students will collect text evidence in the chart to support their character trait inferences.