Thursday, August 12, 2010

inferring with pronouns

I got this lesson out of Kylene Beer's book When Kids Can't Read:
He put down $10. at the window. The woman behind the window gave him $4. The person next to him gave him $3. but he gave it back to her. So, when they went inside she bought him popcorn. This paragraph is so loaded with pronouns its very easy to get lost in the text. As an adult reader you can figure out rather quickly what is going on. Two people on a first date at the movies??? Kids don't have that kind of background knowledge. They might miss the clues which help you to infer (woman at a window, popcorn, he gave her the money back). I pass out a copy of this paragraph and have the children read it three times with a pencil in hand to write notes, and circle important details. Then I bring out the poster and dissect the paragraph with them. Its a quick easy inference lesson. Christine

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