Inferences can be very difficult to teach students. That’s why I’ve come up with a resource for teaching inferences with a free mini-lesson included. As teachers, we start the journey to inferences at a young age even if we don’t realize it. The first of our teaching will start when we ask and answer questions for them while reading. According to Common Core, the act of making inferences and finding evidence is documented in 4th grade. As a rule, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd deal with asking and answering questions in this standard, which preps them for this difficult 4th-grade skill.
So, this Exploring ELA blog post is a bit different because I’m going to focus on 4th and 5th-grade resources. However, the ideas can carry over to all grade levels if you plan to teach inferences in your classroom.
Check it out!
Here are the common core standards before we start talking strategies.
Fourth Grade:
- RL & RI: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Fifth Grade:
- RI & RL: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
So, for informational and literature, the two standards are the same thing. The skills and activities that your students will do while making inferences will be the same. They will just use different types of texts to get there.
Now for the teaching aspect. HOW can we teach our students to make inferences?
- Start by teaching what inferences are.
- Have students make inferences without texts.
- Introduce texts and passages.
- Allow them to practice over time.
1. Start by teaching what observations AND inferences are.
Anchor charts and mini-lessons… two of my favorite things! When introducing inferences to students, it’s critical to give them an idea of what an inference is and how to come to an inference before expecting them to do it on their own.
Anchor Charts
(Sources: RL4.1 Unit and RI4.1 Unit)
Printable or projectable versions of these two anchor charts are available in my Inferences units. However, you can easily make these simple and effective activities.
Anchor charts are a good introduction. They can stay up throughout the entire unit or stay up throughout the year to continually refer to. Making inferences is such a huge topic to learn and practice, that I would suggest keeping them up year-round!
Mini-Lessons
Here are two mini-lessons that include printable anchor charts and three-step hands-on activities. Both of these lessons are for observations, one for informational texts and the other for literature (or narrative text).
(Sources: RL4.1 Unit and RI4.1 Unit)
I suggest teaching observations first when introducing inferences. Observations are a little bit easier for the students to come up to. Also, they learned the act of making observations in texts for the past three years in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade.
In the left picture, you see an informational activity where the students have to read two schema and evidence cards to develop a question. The picture on the right shows a literature mini-lesson where the students read story cards and develop questions based on their observations (text clues + schema).
Both of these activities are great intros to understanding why we infer while we’re reading. The more students understand this part of the skill, the more naturally they will begin the read between the lines, look for clues, and draw inferences.
OQI Charts for Inferences Introduction
(Sources: RL4.1 Unit and RI4.1 Unit)
OQI charts are incredible for teaching inferences. An OQI chart is a place for students to write their observations, questions, and inferences. It helps students to organize the information they need in order to draw a solid inference. It is especially helpful at the beginning of their inference learning for them to fully grasp that their observations (text evidence/clues and schema) can help them answer questions. If students spend enough time developing this skill, they will become naturally more contemplative or deep-thinking readers.
The chart pieces in the photo above can be used to create an anchor chart or as a sorting activity (or BOTH).
(Sources: RL4.1 Unit and RI4.1 Unit)
Additionally, students should practice with OQI charts to help them organize their thinking as they read. On the left, you see an OQI chart activity for informational texts (pieces included in the mini-lesson pack linked). On the right, you see a similar anchor chart for a literature OQI.
2. Have students make inferences without texts.
Next, we are going to discuss how to teach inferences in your ELA unit without constantly reading texts. Here are a few ideas that don’t include passages and texts in all of them. Exciting mini-lessons and hands-on activities are a great way to teach inferences before asking students to read a text and make inferences. Here are a few activities that can help guide students to make inferences without texts.
(Sources: RI4.1 Unit and RI.5.1 Unit)
These mini-lessons from my RI4.1 and RI.5.1 packs include pictures instead of text that will help students develop their inferring skills without having the added obstacle of reading comprehension. In the 4th and 5th grade lessons, students will observe pictures and draw inferences using the clues in the photos and their prior knowledge.
Hands-On Inferencing Activities
(Source: Everything Library)
This lesson is an incredibly fun inference game that involves books, a mystery, and inferences. The students will have to use their knowledge of the books to figure out which book matches which piece of evidence. This is an excellent way to tie in the vocabulary: scheme, evidence, questions, and inferences.
(Source: The Inspired Apple)
This popular free activity from Abby is a lot of fun. This can be used as an introductory lesson or a mini-lesson throughout your unit. What the teacher does is load up her purse with items and pull out the items one at a time. The students will have to formulate questions for each of the items that will help them eventually draw an inference for each item.
(Source: Brain Pop Jr.)
I feel like I can’t write a blog post without including a BrainPop video. They are my absolute favorite tool to use in the classroom. This video is particular to making inferences while reading. It puts it in kid-friendly language and helps students learn about schema and inferences.
3. Introduce texts and passages.
Now, it’s time to introduce reading into their new knowledge of inference skills. They’ve learned what they are and what they need in their brain to come to an inference. Now it is time to practice that skill using read-alouds, mentor texts, and independent passages.
(Sources: RL5.1 Unit and RI.5.1 Unit)
Here are two more mini-lessons to help teach inferences. They involve short stories, task cards, and charts to help introduce students to inferences. These are mini lessons from my 4th and 5th Grade units that involve reading practice. They can be used as whole group activities or group activities. It’s the step before letting the students venture out on their own with passages and texts.
In the passages shown above, there are two pages of text with one page of comprehension questions. Some inference questions also ask for evidence from the text. On the left, you see literature passages. On the right, you see informational passages. This is NOT an easy reading skill to master, so these passages may need to be used in small groups, with partners, and or in groups. Multiple reads of the passage are also suggested due to the fact that students will pick up small hints and pieces of evidence every single time they read.
Ideal Texts for Teaching Inferences
Each of the books listed below are books that are great to use when teaching the inference skill. They have affiliate links to Amazon, as well.
- Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
- Two Bad Ants
- My Lucky Day
- Enemy Pie
- Just a Dream
- Fireflies
- Thank You, Mr. Faulker
- The Stranger
When reading each of these stories, you can read them aloud to your students, or you can have them read to a partner or independently. Then, have them use one of these generic printables from my RL or RI packs to help them follow along with their text.
(Sources: RI4.1 Unit)
Use these templates when reading read-alouds, texts, or passages. As explained above, these generic printables are great to use to help the students track their evidence, schema, observations, and inferences!
4. Allow them to practice in many ways.
Here are several different ways to incorporate inferences into your daily lesson plans without simply asking students to read a book and write down their inferences. These are a few different ways to keep students interested and engaged!
- Sticky Note Inferences (Students will use sticky notes to record a quote from the text, their schema, and an inference)
- Graphic Organizers
- Task Cards
- Interactive Notebook Pages
- Etc.,
Teaching Inferences With Free Mini-Lesson!
Want to try out a free mini-lesson from my Inference units? If you click the image below, you can get a mini-lesson out of my RL4.1 set for free!
FREE INFERENCE ACTIVITY
Get this fun activity sent directly to your inbox.
Or, Do you want the complete, no-prep units?
The resources featured in the blog post are complete, no-prep units. They have everything you need to teach inferences in your 4th or 5th-grade classroom.
Lesson plans, graphic organizers, comprehension passages, task cards, interactive notebooks, assessments, and more! Click the buttons below to get a closer look:
If you’re not a 4th-grade or 5th-grade teacher, check out my Ask and Answer post, which are Common Core’s precursor standards to Inferences.
