This slide deck introduces students to the literacy skill, Inferring. It is designed to be moved through slowly, scaffolding an understanding of Inferring for students who are completely unfamiliar with the term or concept, while also strengthening the implementation of the literacy skill for those who already have a solid foundation.
English Course Pack: Unit One – Literacy Skills
This assignment is part of the The Full English Course Park. This piece is part of Unit One: Literacy Skills, which focuses on creating a strong foundational understanding of literacy skills, PEE paragraph writing, and embedding quotations as textual support.
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1.06 – Inferring: Slide Deck
Step One: Beginning from the Beginning
Students should start by inferring what inferring is.
Then, they can copy down the definition, and provide some examples of how they use the skill (dressing based on weather reports, etc.) before watching the two short video clips.
Step Two: Watching Clips
The two video clips present two different approaches to inferring. The first gives an overview of the skill, while the second demonstrates that inferences don’t have to be wrong to be strong. Solid support is required for a strong demonstration, even if the end inference is proved false.
Step Three: Oral Practice
Students can practice their inferring skills by assessing what it literally shown in the image of the UC Davis pepper spraying incident (https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2021/11/18/10-years-later-uc-davis-implements-change-following-pepper-spraying-incident/) and then list what prior knowledge can help them determine what is occurring.
The red circle slide will walk through key pieces that are literally displayed.
At this point you can have communicate their inferences orally. Time permitting, you may ask them to record a brief written explanation of the text.
Step Four: Written Practice
Finally, the comic (https://pbfcomics.com/comics/bee/) is used with the quick paragraph template for students to write an inference explanation paragraph, before copying down the final exemplar.
The Impact
At this point, students should have a strong understanding of inferring to build from. This skill will find itself used time and again throughout the course.
English – Unit One: Literacy Skills
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English Course Packs: Full Units
Unit One: Literacy Skills
Unit Two: Poetry (In Progress)
Unit Three: Literature Circles (In Progress)
Unit Four: Creative Writing & Choose Our Way Tales (In Progress)
Unit Five: Essay Writing (In Progress)
Unit Six: Culminating Tasks (In Progress)
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Michael Barltrop has been teaching since 2006, integrating comics, video games, and TTRPGs into his classroom. He has been the head of English, Literacy, Special Education, and Assessment & Evaluation and Universal Design. Feel free to reach out through Twitter @MrBarltrop!
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