Elaboration-Inferences


 * Instructions**: Add whatever you want to Strategies, Activities, Informal Assessment and Formal Assessment. Start by clicking "edit page" and then it is like a word processor. If you want to change the wording of what has been already written, treat it like your own text and change it. That is, if you have a more explicit way of saying something, or want to add more and change the wording, just do so. We will be able to track what has been changed, so we can discuss any discrepancies (let's not worry about "hurt feelings" here--this is academic meaning negotiation, and important for critical thinking!!). When you add something, put your initials in parentheses behind it. That will help us to negotiate meaning.

Reading Strategies
Making connections to prior knowledge/schema Understanding text structrue - different genres, fiction/nonfiction Literary analysis - identifying conflict, foreshadowing, mood, tone, imagery, symbolism Critical Literacy and understanding the author's social purpose Identify propaganda techniques - neame calling, implication by assiciation, etc.


 * Predictions
 * Mental Imagery
 * Affective and Aesthetic Response
 * High level thinking
 * application
 * analysis
 * synthesis
 * critical literacy
 * Inferences
 * Word connotations
 * Deep structure w/in sentence
 * Inter-sentence connections

Activities
Art activities which involve the students understanding of mental images:draiwings,collage, postersm paintings, mobiles, & sculptures Going on a "picture walk" and pre-reading activities to make predictions. Discussions to activate prior knowledge about information in a text. Various response activities which involve getting to know the characters more in-depth Have children tell the story/paragraph in their own words Look at connective words that signal dependence on another part Explicit instruction of inferences - teacher models Lessons with figurative language - poetry Creative writing response - write a letter to the main character Analyzing magazines, newspapers, commercials and identifying propaganda techniques Taking perspective in historical events - writing from the perspective of various individuals and comparing the different perspectives Create a T chart with "what the author says" and "what it means" (a.p.) Use cartoons (a.p.) Photo collage activity (jac) Use simple, familiar stories like fairy tales to teach about intersentence inferences (jac) Keep chart of predicitons in response journal (jac) Write a story and omit the final section- ask classmates to predict the ending (jac) Drama activities: act out individual scenes, expressions on a character's face, use simple props Coffeehouses Choose Your Position in Irwin (jac) Using mirror questions (Irwin, 31) (jac)

Informal Assessment
QAR Higher level questions that ask students to sum up what the writer is saying Response Journals Character Journals Reading POETRY, responding Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) Observation in peer and group discussions Conferring with student (a.p.) reader-understanding buddy to check inferences (jac) Assessing performances (jac)

Formal Assessment
Higher level questions that ask students to draw conclusions from text Essays which reflect the student's understanding of a specific strategy