Teaching inference

[LilOleMe2]

Interview help please! ECT interview teaching 30 minute reading lesson for 25 mixed abilty year 6 kids on inference.
Any tips!

I’d start with a brief introduction around what is inference? Ask for ideas any other words or phrases. We are going to be reading detectives etc. ( anyone name a famous detective?)
Today you are all detectives.

You’ll find lots of graphic organisers free on line to help to organise their thoughts for a focus activity.
Along the lines of this is what I read, this is what I know, this is my inference. Lots of texts online with questions.

To introduce the concept you could use boxes or tins with contents that are not as expected. This could also be a group activity for lower ability children or those needing more practical learning.
Pupils can see and read ( hopefully) what contents they expect but might see that the box has been opened and sellotaped or is too heavy or light or makes the wrong noise. They can then make informed guesses.

As an example I once used a “ box of matches” ( alongside other boxes and containers) in a group intervention obviously to much outrage.
“ Aaaw not allowed matches it’s dangerous!” It contained cocktail sticks. I’m a teacher, do you think I’d give you matches? You’re right it’s not safe etc. Look inside.

Another practical idea is to provide a box or bag of items as if they are from someone’s room. They can then infer interests hobbies maybe age etc. Group discussion/ post its.

There will be plenty of resources on Twinkle TES resources but obviously if you can make your own it’s better.
Good luck so much research and material around this so don’t overthink it.
Make it fun. Make an impact.

I teach it to Y7s using a cropped and then the full picture. The cropped picture shows a young kid crying, proper howl face. We spend some time talking about what they can see and infer. Then I show them the full picture, kid is holding an empty ice cream cone and there's a big splat of ice cream on the floor. The inference is easy at this point, i.e. crying because they've dropped their ice cream. We then do some work around evidence and how you need evidence to draw accurate inferences. After this, it's an I do / We do / You do exercise with a different historical sources (all full pictures). I use the sentence starters:
One thing I can infer from source A is ...
Details in the source that tell me this are ...