Don’t you hate that nagging voice in the back of your teacher brain? Thoughts like these CONSTANTLY hammered away at me during the school day.
“If I would have gotten to school five minutes earlier I could have prepared better for this lesson.”
“Wow, this passage I’m making the kids read is SO BORING. I really need to find better reading material.”
“I really need to review (insert skill). The kids still don’t get it.”
“Uh oh…did I remember to bring my lunch? OH NO, I LEFT IT AT HOME! I’m going to have to pay $3.00 for a school lunch. NOOOOOOO.”
The panic of realizing your lunch is at home is no joke!! I wish I could help you there, but I can help if you:
- Need to review reading standards.
- Need more engaging reading passages.
That’s why I have created a full lesson to help you teach, review, or assess RI.4.1. (If your state doesn’t use Common Core, that standard involves drawing inferences.)
Click here to grab the free lesson in my TpT store, which includes a passage about NBA star Steph Curry. Continue reading to see how these resources can help your students learn how to draw inferences.
Preview the Material
I have included four pages of ideas to help you teach this lesson. The first page includes a link to a video about Curry’s NBA career. The basketball fans in your class will love watching Curry’s awesome plays. Students who don’t know anything about Curry will see why he is one of the world’s best basketball players.
The other pages include ideas about previewing the material, a summary of each paragraph, and instructions for the skill practice activity.
Read the Passage
I want students to realize that star athletes are human beings. I also want students to realize that superstars do not just roll out of bed one day and make it to the NBA. Curry’s success is the result of years and years of hard work. That’s why I included several stories about that in the passage.
One story involves Curry spending an entire summer working on his shooting technique with his dad. There were times when Curry cried because he got so frustrated. Kids can’t believe that Steph Curry cried when he was a middle schooler!! It’s powerful for students to see this, then read that Curry continued practicing even though he got frustrated. This summer of practice helped him become an amazing shooter. It didn’t hurt that Steph’s dad (Dell) was one of the best shooters in NBA history in the 1980s and 1990s. Steph realized this and was always willing to learn from his father, even when the lessons were difficult.
Skill Practice Activity
Now your students will use text evidence to support four inferences about Curry. I’ve created this as an activity to go in an interactive notebook, but you could adapt it to use it in other ways. Students will cut out text evidence and glue it with the inference it supports. You will see more instructions when you download the resource. The finished product will look like this.
Writing Prompt and Quiz
The prompt asks students to use text evidence to describe how Curry’s childhood helped him become an awesome basketball player. This requires drawing inferences. Students will also write what they learned about success from this passage. Hopefully, you have time to allow your students to share their writing with other classmates.
The four-question quiz makes a terrific exit slip. It is a quick way to see how well your students understood the passage.
Please only use materials in this resource that meet your students’ needs, complement your teaching style, and fit into your schedule. If you only have time for the passage and quiz, you can give the writing prompt as homework. You could also save it for when you have a sub. I always tried to overplan when I taught because I hated running short on things to do. I have the same goal when I create resources for you.
I also made units to help you with the rest of the RI standards for fourth grade. Click the images below for more information.
Here is more information on the following standards: RI.4.4, RI.4.5, RI.4.6, RI.4.7, RI.4.8, RI.4.9 and RI.4.10.
Feel free to look at my bundle if you are interested in resources for all fourth-grade RI standards.
