Knowledge and Skills Statement
After reading a text and discussing the meaning of the text, provide students with index cards that name events from the text. Have students work in small groups to sort cards into the categories Important and Not Important. Then have students discuss each detail as it relates to the meaning of the text and justify why the detail is important or not.
Notes:
- Provide students with the main idea on a graphic organizer.
- Challenge more advanced students to find three supporting details for the main idea from the text.
Further Explanation
This assessment example requires students to determine whether specific ideas in a text are important or not important to the meaning. A teacher should be able to determine from this activity whether students are proficient in the more concrete skill of determining whether specific ideas are important or not. The teacher can then build on this activity by asking students to independently identify ideas students believe to be important and discuss why they are important.
Research
Barth, A. E., & Elleman, A. (2017). Evaluating the impact of a multistrategy inference intervention for middle-grade struggling readers. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in Schools, 48(1), 31+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A490475287/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=85a8099a
Summary: This study examines the effectiveness of multiple inference intervention strategies that were designed to increase inference-making and reading comprehension for struggling readers. The study focused on using text clues, activities and integrating prior knowledge, understanding character and author's purpose, and responding to inference questions. Details and lesson examples are available in the Appendix.