The importance of background knowledge is especially salient in the age of Common Core. This article offers practical classroom strategies to build background knowledge such as using contrasts and comparisons and encouraging...

A lesson plan in which students play a game to cover words on a game board by making inferences. Materials are included.

First graders will use text evidence to make inferences about word and word phrase meanings in a text. Word and picture clues will be used to help students form inferences.

This downloadable slideshow focuses on prediction and inference including the similarities and differences between them, when the reader does each, and questions to ask as you are reading.

[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a non-fiction article about colored television and answer questions in comprehension, sequencing, inferences, main idea, transitions, and more.

This lesson focuses on students researching and learning about Iran's culture, society, and leadership before and after the 1979 Revolution in preparation for reading the graphic novel Persepolis. Students work in small groups to...

In this game, students are asked to infer what is being described. They click on "Press to Show a Clue" revealing a line of the riddle until they have an idea of what is being described; next, they type their guess into the "Make a...

Describes a reading strategy where students must respond to text by supporting their ideas with text-based evidence. Lists different categories of questions the teacher can prepare based on the text chosen, with examples for each.

This activity will challenge students to weigh the textual evidence for and against the claim that Ethan's woes lay in staying in Starkfield-and not in the details of his personal relationships. In the process, students will close read...

This site contains figurative language worksheets that assess students' understanding of similes in the context of sentence. After seeing an example, students will fill in the words that are compared in each simile. In addition, students...

In this 3-lesson unit, students will read Douglass's narrative. They will analyze Douglass's vivid first-hand accounts of the lives of slaves and the behavior of slave owners to see how he successfully contrasts reality with romanticism...

John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech is one of the most famous speeches in American history. Teachers can use this lesson to teach Language Arts standards, as well as Social Studies standards. This lesson plan includes pre-reading ideas,...

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...

William Faulkner's self-proclaimed masterpiece, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, is a fascinating exploration of the many voices found in a Southern family and community. Learners will explore the use of multiple voices in...

Reading Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess," students will explore the use of dramatic monologue as a poetic form, where the speaker often reveals far more than intended. The students will later write their own dramatic monologue...

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...

This lesson plan will introduce students to the concept of allegory by using George Orwell's widely read novella, Animal Farm. Through this novel, students will learn what an allegory is, the rhetorical components of an allegory, and...

When reading a story learn how to recall specific examples from the text to answer comprehension questions. In addition, you can also use story details to make inferences.