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Classroom activity Grade 4 English Language Arts

Inference Detectives on Caldwater Creek: A Grade 4 Card Hunt

Pairs visit eight posted cards about a fictional creek, deciding for each whether the answer is stated outright or has to be figured out from the details.

Objectives

  1. Students will quote or restate a stated detail that answers a question about a creek.
  2. Students will draw an inference from a short text and name the detail that supports it.
  3. Students will sort statements by whether the text states them or a reader must figure them out.

Vocabulary

Key words: detail, inference, evidence, cloudy, runoff

Teacher overview

Pairs of students move through eight short cards posted around the room, each one a small piece of the record on a fictional creek in the town of Tinsdale. Four cards can be answered by pointing at a line of text, and four require an inference the card never states, so the design of the hunt separates the two moves that RI.4.1 asks for. The misconception worth planning for is that fourth graders often call an inference "wrong" because the words are not on the page, or call a personal guess an inference when nothing in the text supports it. The closing sort round forces every student to place each statement in one of the two categories and say which card sent them there.

Activity Directions

  1. Before class, print the eight station cards from the Student Handout, cut them apart, and tape them around the room with space for two students to stand at each. For a class of more than 16 students, post the second copy as a separate loop of eight cards so each pair still has a card of its own. Print the recording page for each student and give each student two index cards, one marked SAYS IT and one marked I CAN TELL.
  2. Open by reading card 1 aloud with the whole class. Ask where in the card the answer sits, and underline it on a displayed copy. Then read card 2 aloud and ask the same question, so students hear that the answer to card 2 is not printed anywhere on it.
  3. Explain the two moves in plain terms. When the answer is printed in the text, students copy or restate that line. When the answer is not printed, students write what they can tell and then name the line that made them think so.
  4. Pair students and send each pair to a different starting card. Pairs read the card together, agree on an answer, and write it on the numbered line that matches the card number.
  5. Rotate pairs every three minutes on a timer. Both partners write, and neither pair may skip a card.
  6. Stop the rotation once every pair has visited all eight cards, which takes about twenty-four minutes. Send students back to their seats with the recording page.
  7. Run the sort round. Read statements 9 through 14 from the Student Handout aloud, one at a time. On your signal, every student holds up SAYS IT or I CAN TELL. Call on one student per statement to name the card that decided it.
  8. Close with two debrief questions. First, ask which card was hardest to answer and why. Second, ask how a reader can tell the difference between an inference and a guess, and steer the answer toward the presence or absence of a supporting detail in the text.
Inference Detectives on Caldwater Creek: A Grade 4 Card Hunt — Grade 4 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Caldwater Creek Detective Cards. Caldwater Creek and the town of Tinsdale are made up for this activity. Read each card. Write your answer on the line with the same number.

Card 1. A sign stands by the footbridge. It reads: Caldwater Creek. Water tested every Monday by the Tinsdale Water Board.

  1. How often is the creek water tested?

Card 2. In June the creek ran clear. In July the town paved a new parking lot on the slope above the creek. After that, the water turned brown every time it rained.

  1. This card does not say why the water turned brown. What can you tell about the cause? Name the words on the card that made you think so.

Card 3. The Water Board keeps a chart on its wall. The chart shows how cloudy the creek is each week. In June the marks were low. In July the marks were high.

  1. In which month was the creek water cloudier?

Card 4. Ms. Okonjo has fished the creek for thirty years. She said she used to catch trout below the footbridge. She catches none there now.

  1. This card does not say the creek has changed. What can you tell about the creek below the bridge? Name the words that made you think so.

Card 5. In August a crew planted grass and small shrubs on the bare bank above the creek.

  1. What did the crew plant on the bank?

Card 6. By September the creek ran clearer after a rain than it had in July.

  1. Use card 5 and card 6 together. What can you tell about the new grass and shrubs?

Card 7. A note is taped to the Water Board door. It reads: Creek water is never safe to drink, even when it looks clear.

  1. According to the note, is clear creek water safe to drink?

Card 8. In October the town put a metal screen over the storm drain on Murrow Street. At the fall cleanup, the crew pulled less trash out of the creek than they had the fall before.

  1. This card does not say the screen worked. What can you tell about the screen? Name the words that made you think so.

Sort round. Hold up SAYS IT if the cards print the statement. Hold up I CAN TELL if you have to figure it out.

  1. The creek was cloudier in July than in June.
  2. Rain running off the new parking lot carried dirt into the creek.
  3. The creek is tested once a week.
  4. The new grass and shrubs helped keep dirt out of the creek.
  5. Creek water is not safe to drink even when it looks clear.
  6. The screen on the Murrow Street drain is keeping trash out of the creek.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: Once a week, every Monday. Card 1 prints this on the sign.
  2. Answer: Rain runs off the new paved parking lot and carries dirt down into the creek. Accept any answer that links the paving to the brown water and names the July paving line or the phrase "after that" as the supporting detail.
  3. Answer: July. Card 3 states that the July marks on the cloudiness chart were high and the June marks were low.
  4. Answer: The creek below the bridge no longer supports trout the way it once did. Accept any answer built on the line that Ms. Okonjo used to catch trout there and catches none now.
  5. Answer: Grass and small shrubs. Card 5 states this directly.
  6. Answer: The plants are holding the soil on the bank, so less dirt washes into the creek during a rain. Accept any answer that connects the August planting on card 5 to the clearer September water on card 6.
  7. Answer: No. The note on card 7 states that creek water is never safe to drink, even when it looks clear.
  8. Answer: The screen appears to be catching trash before it reaches the creek. Accept any answer that names the smaller amount of trash pulled at the fall cleanup as the supporting detail.
  9. Answer: SAYS IT. Card 3 states the June and July marks.
  10. Answer: I CAN TELL. Card 2 gives the paving and the brown water but never states the cause.
  11. Answer: SAYS IT. Card 1 prints the Monday testing schedule.
  12. Answer: I CAN TELL. Neither card 5 nor card 6 states that the plants made the difference.
  13. Answer: SAYS IT. Card 7 prints this on the note.
  14. Answer: I CAN TELL. Card 8 reports less trash but never states that the screen caused it.

Differentiation

Support

Pair these students with a partner who reads fluently and shorten the route to cards 1, 2, 3, and 5, which carry the clearest evidence lines. Provide a sentence frame for the inference cards: "I can tell that ____ because the card says ____." Allow oral answers recorded by the partner.

Extension

Ask these students to write a ninth card of their own for the same creek, no longer than three sentences, along with a question that can only be answered by inference. Trade cards with another pair and check whether the partner's answer names a supporting detail.

ELL supports

Pre-teach cloudy, bank, drain, and screen with pictures before the rotation, and note that bank here means the edge of a creek rather than a place that holds money. Print the SAYS IT and I CAN TELL index cards in two colors so the sort round does not depend on reading the label quickly.

Extensions

Post a blank ninth card labeled "What we still do not know about Caldwater Creek" and let students add questions to it over the following week. Sort those questions into ones the existing cards could answer and ones that would need new information from the Water Board.