National Endowment for the Humanities
Poems that Tell a Story: Narrative and Persona in the Poetry of Robert Frost
Dig in deeper with Robert Frost's, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Learners will read and discuss poems by Robert Frost and learn the meaning of terms such as narrative and personal. They journal, collaborate, and present poetry...
City College of San Francisco
Making Inferences: Reading Between the Lines
Have you ever read part of a story and had to figure out what the rest was about? Practice making inferences with several short passages and multiple choice questions.
Teacher Web
Inferring Character Traits
Learning how to draw inferences from text is a key reading comprehension skill. Here's a worksheet that gives readers a chance to practice by offering 20 descriptive sentences and asking kids to identify the inferred character trait, and...
Have Fun Teaching
Making Inferences (19)
Good readers use what they know and clues found in a story to make inferences about what a writer wants readers to consider. Here's a graphic that supports this comprehension strategy and asks kids to record what they know, the clues...
K12 Reader
Inference in Literature: The Wizard of Oz
We're off to see the wizard! Practice making inferences in literature with two sample paragraphs from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Each passage provides questions about the pleasantness of the place it describes, and kids...
Curated OER
Foreshadowing and Making Predictions
"What happens next?" Using real-life scenarios, movies, images, and other prompts, pupils practice making predictions based on inferences from clues. A SMART board activity takes them from making predictions to writing a prediction...
Curated OER
"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury
After reading "All Summer in a Day," by Ray Bradbury, have your learners respond to these questions. The worksheet starts out with comprehension questions and moves into higher-level inference and judgment questions. This could be used...
Curated OER
"Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" by Rod Serling
These questions ask learners to think about the text "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" in a variety of ways. In addition to practicing reading comprehension, class members work on interpreting, making inferences and connections,...
Curated OER
"Rikki-tikki-tavi"
“Rikki-tikki-tavi” provides an opportunity to model for readers how to use background information to enrich understanding of a story. Class members observe animal behavior, listen to biographical background on Rudyard Kipling, study...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Analyze Cause and Effect
Examine cause and effect by asking pupils to fill out a basic graphic organizer. The template is for any story or event and provides a line for writing in the story or event title. Pupils write in two causes in the circles and the change...
Scholastic
Midnight Magic Discussion Guide
This discussion guide accompanies the fiction book Midnight Magic written by Avi, enforces story elements, inferences, and theme/plot. Have the class work on it over time, it will engage even your reluctant readers.
Literacy Design Collaborative
Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Was that supposed to be funny? Scholars analyze The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County to determine if Mark Twain's story is indeed based on humor. Learners work through short response questions, vocabulary, and active reading to make a...
K12 Reader
Little Women: Helping Father
Jo's decision to sell her hair to bringing her wounded father home is a pivotal and poignant scene from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Class members read the excerpt and answer four questions about the details, vocabulary, and plot...
K20 LEARN
Considering "Charles": Pictograms, Annotations, Reading Strategies, And Multimodal Responses
Shirley Jackson's short story, "Charles," provides middle schoolers with an opportunity to practice their close reading skills. Using the provided list of prompts, scholars read and reread the story, then create a multimodal response to...
Curated OER
Comprehension Questions: The City of Ember, Chapter 20
Comprehension questions for the last chapter of Jeanne DuPrau's book The City of Ember assess factual recall, sequencing skills, and inference about the text. Note: One question about point of view is based on a sentence not related to...
Curated OER
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Explore Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in this literature analysis instructional activity. Middle schoolers read and summarize the plot of the story. They then adapt passages for a contemporary audience and analyze the...
Hampton-Brown
From "First Crossing"
Young scholars look closely at four tales taken from the collection of short stories, First Crossing edited by Donald R. Galloby. While examining the life of four teenagers and the lives they lead as U.S. immigrants, your enthusiastic...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Theme Analysis in A Christmas Carol
Why does Charles Dickens have Ebenezer go from scrooge to light-hearted and generous? From "Bah, humbug!" to "God Bless Us, Every One!" After rereading Dickens' preface to A Christmas Carol, learners analyze quotations from the tale that...
Have Fun Teaching
Predict and Infer (22)
Encourage close reading and critical thinking with a worksheet that asks readers to select an event from a story, predict what they believe will happen, and list clues from the story that support this prediction. After completing the...
Curated OER
Phineas Gage: “This I Believe” Venn Diagrams After Reading Strategy
Difficulties with brain injuries still continue today. After reading Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science, class members read a series of modern personal essays about brain injuries and choose an essay to compare...
Curated OER
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Problematic Situation
Accompany The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis with this activity worksheet. Spark a discussion about the story's characters' decision making skills while making inferences and allow learners to connect personally by...
Great Books Foundation
State of Affairs
Good verses evil. Scholars make inferences after taking a close look at the short story, State of Affairs, in which Daniel Defoe goes back and forth comparing good and evil thoughts through his writing. After reading the text, there are...
Novelinks
The Color of Water: Concept Analysis
Considering using James McBride's autobiography/memoir The Color of Water with your class? Check out this seven-page informational packet that includes background information on McBride, the organization pattern of the book, and issues...
Curated OER
"A Boy and a Man" from Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman
A great resource for chapter 2 of Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman, this worksheet asks learners to respond to a series of lower- and higher-level questions using complete sentences following a class discussion. Pupils are asked...