Text Title : The Sweetest Fig Grade : 3-6
Author : Chris Van Allsburg Unit # Any
Utah ELA Core Standard(s) :
SL.3.1b
: Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions ( e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion ).
SL.3.1c
: Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.
SL.3.1d
: Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion..
RL.3.3
: Describe characters in a story ( e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
RF.3.4
: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension ( e.g., shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading).
RF.3.4a
: Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
W.3.3
: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
“I Can” Statement(s)
: Comprehension and/or Reading Strategies :
Inference
Content Core Objective : Vocabulary :
Inference—A general conclusion drawn from information that is given.
Implicit—To be assumed but not directly expressed
Phonics/Word Study : WIDA (ELL) Language Objective :
Students will be able to make inferences based on picture and text clues
Shared Reading Instruction (“I Do It”)
Modeled and Explicit Instruction with Teacher Talk
“I am going to tell you something that will help you know how to infer with text”. Not all authors tell you everything! They didn’t run out of paper so they didn’t tell you. They didn’t tell you everything because they wanted you to figure it out for yourself.”
“So to infer, you need to use information from your head (background knowledge), pictures, and the actual text to become a good book detective. We are going to play a game I am going to have one student at a time leave the room for a moment while I show the class an emotion card. When the student comes back in your job will be to show or describe this emotion hoping the other students will guess the correct emotion.”
Emotion Cards & Scenarios - Clues are based on emotions.
Sing the inference song
Whole Class Shared Reading (“We Do It”)
Read The Sweetest Fig one page at a time. After reading the first page introduce the graphic organizer
Model your thinking for students. “
When I read the he wouldn’t allow the dog to bark and saw the newspaper in his hand I inferred that he probably was not nice to animals.” When it said “Teach him a lesson” I inferred that meant hitting the dog with a newspaper.” I also know that Bastille Day doesn’t

occur in the United States so it must be a different country.”
Continue through the book continuing to fill out the graphic organizer and having students follow along and reading the book with you.
Small Group/Partners Shared Reading – No Independent Work (“We Do It”)
Interacting and Reinforcing
After you sense that students are understanding inferring, have them group and read another page and allow them to make inferences and then share with the class. Remind them that:
“Clues come from picture, text, and your own background knowledge.” “Be ready to tell us your inference and what evidence lead you to making that inference.”
Continue throughout the rest of the book. Take this skill into guided reading and have them practice inferring there as well.
Introduce the Cemetery Inference and let the groups practice inferring from real tombstones:
Cemetery Inference
Other possible texts to reinforce the skill would be any other Chris VanAllsburg book
Writing Instruction (“I Do It”)
Modeled and Explicit Instruction with Teacher Talk
“Students, good readers are able to ‘make inferences’ in their reading through writing. We will do this together as we write a ‘paragraph’ about this picture.”
Writing Whole Class (“We Do It”)
Interactive with Explicit Teacher Talk
Worth a Thousand Words
Show photographs or magazine pictures. Explain the saying, “ A picture is worth a thousand words.” Observe what a person in a picture is doing and look at his or her facial expressions and body language to infer how the person felt at that particular moment .” Then model writing a paragraph based on the discussion about the photograph
Model this using a picture
Writing in Small Group/Partners (“We Do It”)
Have students take a photograph or magazine picture. Writing a paragraph inferring what is happening in the photograph or picture. Gather the pictures. Display the pictures for all students to read. Have each group read their paragraph and see if the other students can infer which photo or picture it matches.
Independent Writing (“You Do It”)
Students will work independently to create their own “inferring” picture paragraph.
Literacy Assessment :
Assessment
Content Assessment :
STRATEGIES TAUGHT IN SHARED READING SHOULD ALSO BE REINFORCED AND PRACTICED IN
GUIDED READING GROUPS AND INDEPENDENT WORK.
Inferring activities that could be used as centers
Inferring Activities
*Lesson plans may be used for multiple days.

Infer Song
(to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean)
Sometimes when you reading a story
The words are not all there for you
So being a good book detective
Will help you to find any clue!
Chorus
Infer! Infer!
Filling in what is not in the book!
Infer! Infer!
It’s taking a much closer look!
Some author’s leave clues in their pictures.
Some author’s leave clues in their text.
They give you just part of their story
And want you to fill in the rest!
Repeat Chorus
So when you are reading a text
Be careful to read what is there
But then figure out what is missing –
Now your inferring with flair!
Repeat Chorus