Title of Video Segment: Into the Book: Behind the Lesson, Inferring
Running time: 9 minutes
Synopsis of Segment: Inferring … Dr. Michael P. Ford teaches students and other teachers how to make inferences from information in a text – that what is “right there” in the text can often reveal more information.

DR. MICHAEL P. FORD: How do students use inferring to get into the book? Let's go Behind the Lesson and see how teachers make this happen.
     
DR. FORD: I want you to take a look at me, because you don't really know who I am. But I'm giving you some "right there" clues. So, one of the things that's really noticeable about me, especially if you look right up around here is that I have glasses. So, let's all write that word in box number one on the "right there" side. Glasses.
     
DR. FORD: In watching your lesson, what were the goals? What were you trying to accomplish today?
     
DR. FORD: This lesson really operated on two different levels. If we looked first at the student goals, the idea was to teach about inferencing. Then at the same time, since we had teachers watching the lesson, we were trying to model some best practices as they related to comprehension instruction.

Now, I want you to take a look at me and see if you can figure out one more "right there" clue. Don't write it down, just think it in your head. One more thing about me that's right there, that you can notice.
     
STUDENT: White teeth.
     
DR. FORD: He has white teeth, okay. I'm going to take that one, because that's a pretty nice one. Okay. Now, what I want you to do is, those are the clues that are right there. But if you think a little bit. If you search your brain just a little bit. Each of those right there clues stands for something. You can infer something about me from one of those right there clues, okay? So, for example, if you're looking at somebody who has glasses, you might infer that that person has poor eyesight.

Now, let's all think about that clue that Dakota had about me. He says I have white teeth. That's the right there clue. But now I'm trying to think and search a little bit. What would that mean if somebody has white teeth? What does that mean? It's not right there. But if you think and search, you can infer something. I see some people are already checking with their neighbors. Go ahead, check with your neighbors. See what they're thinking. What's the right there clue? Scott, what would you infer?
     
STUDENT: Um, you take good care of your teeth.
     
DR. FORD: Excellent, okay. Now, let me show you a few things I brought in. I brought this thing. I'm not going to say much about it. I want you to use your skills and strategies. What can you infer from my passport about me? Don't tell me. Tell your neighbor first, okay? What would you infer from my passport about me?
     
DR. FORD: I notice that you use a technique called think-pair-share.
Why do you use that with your kids?
     
DR. FORD: What I was trying to do was to break out of the cycle of teacher talks or asks a question, a student responds, teacher evaluates. But you hardly ever see interaction that goes student to student. Effective teachers have high level of engagement. And I think you have to be very intentional about trying to guarantee those levels of engagement. Otherwise kids disengage fairly quickly. Again, you'll notice that they all had a simple graphic organizer for keeping track of their clues and their inferences from the very beginning of the lesson, so that there was this paper trail where they had to write down ideas.
     
How about this guy? R-O-N-A-L-D.
     
STUDENT: He likes to travel?
     
DR. FORD: A good way to put it, Ronald, okay. How many people would agree with him on that one? Okay, you did nail that one. I love to travel. But I'll use your word: "Likes to travel."
     
DR. FORD: You showed us a lesson plan. Can you tell us about the importance of that?
     
DR. FORD: I think it's very critical to be intentional about what it is you're trying to accomplish every single day. And by intentional, I don't mean inflexible. I think you still have to kind of follow the flow of your students. But you should walk in clearly knowing what it is you're going to do and why you're going to do it.

When you're inferring, we like to say that instead of looking just at the right there, you have to kind of think and search. You have to do what some people call "reading between the lines." But what if I was a character in a book? Where would you get all those right there clues?
     
STUDENT: From the pictures.

DR. FORD: You might get them from the pictures. Where else do you get right there clues?
     
STUDENT: The words.

DR. FORD: Right. So, when you're in a book, you have to infer from the pictures, you have to infer from the words. And we're going to practice that a little bit today.

"It is important to love where you live. And Solomon Singer loved where he lived not at all. And this is what drove him out into the streets each night. It was dreams of balconies and purple walls that took him to the street. Solomon Singer wandered."
     
Now, let's see if we can do some inferencing about Solomon Singer. We did some inferencing about me, but let's see if we can do it for a character in the book.
     
Now, I think I can infer something about Solomon Singer. And I'm going to use just one word, but you could use a couple different words that mean about the same thing. This character in this book seems unhappy. So, the right there kind of clue was he did not like where he lived at all.

STUDENT: Indiana was mixed into his blood.
     
DR. FORD: Ooh, isn't that a nice way of saying it. If it's mixed in your blood, that's probably also a good right there kind of clue. So, let's write that one down. That helps us out with number ten. The right there clue, Indiana mixed into his blood.

And then, Ron, you did some inferencing. What was your inference? If Indiana is where you grew up, and it's mixed into your blood, and now you're living in New York City, what would you infer?
     
STUDENT: He missed Indiana.
     
DR. FORD: Ah, that's all you'd have to write down there. We're going to leave Solomon Singer. You've got four boxes left. And I want you to do some reading in your own books. Let's see if we can take what we've learned and do it with our own books now.

DR. FORD: Can you tell us about the gradual release model?
     
DR. FORD: If you look back through the lesson, what you'll see was it's very, very strong on the front end in terms of the teacher telling the kids what it is they need to know in order to do the strategy. And then, a lot of modeling of how to do the strategy, inviting the kids in on that modeling through your specific questions. So, you kind of are working together with the teacher prompting, then letting the kids take more responsibility for the actual use of the strategy. The kids are taking the lead, but the teacher's still helping. And then finally and slowly turning it over to the students.
     
Let's try to see if we can do some inferencing with the book that we're reading. Use your sticky notes to mark as you go along.

So let's try this one."I miss my mom." That's right there in the book. How do you think he's feeling?
     
STUDENT: Sad.
     
DR. FORD: Yes. See how you're inferencing from him missing his mom? Plus, here's another good right there clue.
     
DR. FORD: It's always a challenge to assess while you're teaching. How were you assessing these kids?
     
DR. FORD: I had a simple grid, where I had some specific sorts of things that I was looking for and so as I wandered the room and met with the student, I wrote down that student's name. And then I tried to quickly sort of code whether they were able to make the inferences or not. And if I noticed anything else while I was working with that child, I wrote that down.    

Let's take a little time with the person we're sitting next to and talk about our books, one of the clues that we found, and an inference that we made.
     
STUDENT: Feed the dog catcher.
     
STUDENT: A long gun in his hands. He's cruel and a part of the hunt to find the wolf.

STUDENT: He shouted to, like, he shouted to her to not put the ring on her finger. But it was already too late. She put it on her finger. And then, I think she vanished into Narnia.
     
DR. FORD: What would you say was the most surprising thing that you gained from being back in the classroom?
     
DR. FORD: What you get reminded of when you go into a third grade classroom again is the great, sort of diversity, in terms of the reading levels of the kids sitting in front of you. Some kids were still struggling with emergent reading materials, and others were reading quite sophisticated chapter books. And then, trying to find a lesson that would transcend that amount of diversity, I think, is probably a good insight to keep in mind.
     
DR. FORD: Well, I really had a blast watching you teach today.