English Language Arts and Reading.5.8.A

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The student is expected to

infer multiple themes within a text using text evidence;

multiple genres TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--literary elements. The student recognizes and analyzes literary elements within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse literary texts.

During small group instruction, read a text that has multiple themes. Then, ask students to write the theme of the text on an index card. Have students share their responses and begin a conversation about how there is not just one correct answer because the text has multiple themes. Read another text and have students identify more than one theme in the text.


Further Explanation

Students should be able to infer themes presented in a text that speak to a common human experience such as loneliness, friendship, and bravery. Students should be able to infer the themes that relate to a character or group of characters, an event in a story, or an act in a drama.

Themes are universal ideas presented in a text that speak to a common human experience. Examples of themes presented in a text include loneliness, friendship, and bravery. Students should be able to examine texts to make inferences about the themes that relate to a character or group of characters and events in a story or drama. They should also determine how the interconnection of multiple themes within a text define the plot of a story, the relationships among characters, and the way characters face and solve a conflict and change throughout the text.
paraphrased or directly quoted information from a source that supports an inference, thesis, claim, or analysis
the explicit or implied central or universal idea of a literary work that often speaks to the human experience/condition

Research

1.  Nokes, J. D. (2008). The observation/inference chart: improving student's abilities to make inferences while reading nontraditional texts: paintings, movies, historical artifacts, and other nontraditional texts are easier to understand when students are skilled in making inferences. These skills transfer to traditional texts as well. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(7), 538–546. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A178358714/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=842641e2

Summary: The author demonstrates how an observation/inference chart can help inexperienced readers make appropriate inferences. The author explains how to observe and make inferences from observations, provides examples of modeling making inferences, and gives examples to support both guided practice for students and students' individual practice.

2. Ilter, II. (2019). The efficacy of context clue strategy instruction on middle grades students' vocabulary development. Research in Middle Level Education, 42(1). doi: 10.1080/19404476.2018.1554522

Summary: In this study, the researcher compares context clue instruction and wide-reading practices as they relate to their effectiveness and impact on vocabulary. The results suggest that teaching students how to infer meaning from context clues is an instructional strategy that positively impacts the level of student achievement in reading.