A great colleague of mine helped me understand a great strategy for teaching higher-level reading skills. She said, when the reading skill, such as inference, is a higher-level thinking skill, the reading comprehension must be lower. Use a text that is easy for the student to read and understand so they can focus on the more challenging thinking skills.
One of my favorite activities was using the story of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to work on inference skills. We would read the book as a class and I would have plenty of extra copies around the room for the partner work. The students would have to use inference skills to try to interpret what the Once-ler was and was not thinking.
I've attached the graphic organizer we used, here I will explain the four columns.
Self Talk: these would be comments and thoughts the once-ler was saying to himself that were not included in the book. For example, was he ever thinking "should I stop?".
Peer talk: comments other characters would be saying to the Once-ler. The book is only dialogue from the Once-ler and the Lorax, what about the others? Were his family members in the business enabling him and encouraging him? Was there a family member who ever spoke up to support the Lorax?
Example: Comments the Once-ler was saying to other characters not already included in the story.
Non-example: These are comments the once-ler definitely would never have stated to other characters.
This activity was used in fifth grade. Most students by then had heard or read the story before so it was familiar to them. The comprehension and understanding of story was not the focus, but the expansion of the ideas in the story.
Please use, modify, and share the attached resource however you would like to benefit your students and colleagues!