Lesson 2: Inferences in Stargirl

Grade Level/Content Area: 8th Grade English Language Arts

Date: 10/1/2014

Common Core Standards:

R.S.L.1.: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports…inferences drawn from the

text.

R.S.L.3.: Analyze how particular…incidents in a story…reveal aspects of a character.

Student Learning Objectives:

1. Students will cite relevant pieces of textual evidence from Stargirl that support

inferences made about Stargirl’s feelings, personality, and/or character during

incidents in the story when Stargirl and the narrator do not explicitly note her inner

thoughts, motives, and emotions.

2. Students will analyze how key events from Stargirl give the reader insight into

Stargirl’s feelings, personality, and/or character.

3. Students will infer, using their knowledge of text, how Stargirl would react to a

situation they experience.

Language/Vocabulary Information:

In order to be successful in this lesson, students will need to understand the language function and

term inference, which they learned in Lesson 1 and will continue to have practice with in this lesson.

Students will also need to understand the terms point of view and perspective as we try to understand

Stargirl’s “unheard” perspective. Sentence frames will again be available to help students correctly

engage in academic discourse and frame their thinking.

Instructional Plan

Materials & Resources:

electronic whiteboard

powerpoint presentation

anticipation guides

extra sentence frame copies

inference graphic organizers for each of the 4 major events being analyzed

observation data collection sheet

a walk in Stargirl’s shoes assignment

a walk in Stargirl’s shoes guided outline

Learning Activities:

Orientation/Engagement/Motivation (5 minutes):

As students enter the room they will be prompted by a slide projected on the electronic whiteboard,

to complete the first column of the anticipation that will be handed to them as they walk into the

classroom. This will help students pre-assess their current perceptions of Stargirl and evaluate how

they have changed by the end of the lesson.

Students will evaluate the following statements for the anticipation guide at the beginning and end of

class and circle whether they agree or disagree with the statement:

Stargirl is weird.

I relate to Stargirl.

Stargirl has not been upset or bothered by anything that has happened to her in the book so

far.

Students will also be instructed by the slide to place their homework (inference practice homework

from Lesson 1) in their period bin and copy down tonight’s homework into their planners.

I will verbally remind students to keep the anticipation guide on their desks so that they can

complete the second column and question at the end of the period.

Presentation/Explicit Instruction (5 minutes):

I will review with student’s what point of view the story is told from (first person point of view/Leo’s)

and ask them to consider how at this point we have not heard much from Stargirl. The story is not

told from her point of view, nor does Stargirl have any best friend relationships in the story, where we

are able to hear her speak about her thoughts and feelings. That being said, we can infer, as we

learned how to do yesterday, what Stargirl is thinking and feeling by putting ourselves in her shoes

and looking at the book for hints and clues in the form of textual evidence.

Some questions to prompt student thinking are:

What point of view is the story told from? How do we know that?

Who is the narrator? What is he like?

How accurate do you think his portrayal of Stargirl is?

Think about how difficult it is to understand the actions of others or to know what they are

thinking. We can’t read other people’s minds. In the novel we are stuck in Leo’s head, how

does that affect our perspective?

What types of information can Leo tell us about Stargirl? What things is he unable to share

because he is not her?

I will then introduce the next activity by telling students that in order to better understand Stargirl

we will use our inference skills to infer what she is thinking and feeling during pivotal events in the

story. I will ask students to review what an inference is prior to the beginning of this activity as well

as model for them how to use the inference graphic organizer with a text through a think aloud and

by displaying my example on the electronic whiteboard as follows:

What Do I See?

(Textual Evidence)

What Do I Know?

(Put myself in Stargirl’s shoes)

My Inference

(conclusions/deductions)

Leo asks Stargirl to go on the

Hot Seat and much to his

surprise she says yes.

Stargirl says she thinks Leo is

I know that teenagers, like

Stargirl, generally say a boy is

cute when they like them. I

also know that when you like

someone you often do things to

Stargirl must have agreed to go

on the Hot Seat because she

has a crush on Leo.

cute. please them.

I will explain to students that based on this scene, even though we never explicitly hear Stargirl tell

anyone this is her reason for going on the Hot Seat and we cannot read her thoughts because of the

novel’s point of view, I can infer the reasons for her actions.

Exploration/Expression/Guided Practice/Independent Practice/ Feedback/Application (15-20

minutes):

Students will be placed in mixed ability groups and assigned one of the following major events that

have happened to Stargirl so far in the novel:

Stargirl on the Hot Seat (p.62-67)

Stargirl is left behind at Red Rock High School (p. 53-54)

Stargirl gets “tomato-faced” when cheering at a basketball game (p.70-72)

Stargirl goes to Anna Grisdale’s grandfather’s funeral and Anna’s mother attacks her (p.44-

46)

In order to help keep students on task and to keep the groups to 3 or 4 students, some classes may

have multiple groups working on the same event.

Each group will be asked to use the text as well as their own personal experiences/knowledge to infer

what Stargirl was thinking and feeling during their assigned event. Students will record these feelings

on their groups event specific inference graphic organizer. Groups should also think about what

Stargirl’s motivation for doing things such as attending the funeral or cheering for the other team

might have been.

I will tell students to try to put themselves in Stargirl’s shoes. How would they feel if this happened

to them?

I will randomly choose a member of each group to recap their event for the class and summarize what

was discussed and what they inferred about Stargirl. Students who do not have the inference sentence

frames from the last lesson will be given an additional copy in order to aid them in this process.

Closure (10 minutes):

Students will fill out the second column in their anticipation guides and compare their new answers to

their answers from the beginning of the lesson and jot down their answers to the final question on the

anticipation guide, which asks students to explain how their perceptions of Stargirl have changed

from the beginning of class. Students will then complete a think, pair, share with a partner of their

choice and we will discuss how our perceptions of Stargirl have changed in a teacher-led, whole class

discussion.

Some questions I will ask during the discussion are:

What did you think of Stargirl before this activity?

What did you think of Stargirl after?

Have your views changed? Why or why not?

Homework Overview (5 minutes)

To delve further into Stargirl’s unheard perspective, students will be able to choose a Stargirl-esk task

or a random act of kindness and then write a short paragraph about their experience.

Modifications/Accommodations:

Copies of class notes for students with messy handwriting and who have the specific

modification included in their 504s/IEPs.

Sentence frames for students who have trouble engaging in academic discourse.

Graphic organizers to break down the complex process of inferring into smaller steps and

demystify the process.

Guided outlines for the homework for students who struggle with organizing their thoughts in

writing.

Assessment:

Assessment Name Type of assessment SLOs Evaluated

Observation/Questioning Formative/Informal 1,2

Group Inference Graphic Organizer Formative/Informal 1,2

A Walk in Stargirl’s Shoes Formative/Informal 1,3

Lesson 2 Instructional Materials:

Powerpoint Slides:

Name: _________________________ Date: _____________ ELA 8 Period: ___________

Anticipation Guide Directions: Read the statements below and circle whether you agree or disagree with them. You will record your answers in the before column at the beginning of class and the after at the end.

Statement Before After

Stargirl is weird. Agree/Disagree Agree/Disagree

I relate to Stargirl. Agree/Disagree Agree/Disagree

Stargirl has not been upset or bothered by anything that has happened to her in the book so far.

Agree/Disagree Agree/Disagree

At the end of class, answer the following question: How have your opinions changed after completing the activity?

Lesson 2 Assessments:

Observation Data Collection Sheet:

Below are each of the Group Inferences Graphic Organizers for each of the 4 key events in Stargirl:

Name(s): _____________________________ Date: ___________ ELA 8 Period: __________ You are making inferences about Stargirl’s feelings, motivations, and thoughts when...

Stargirl is “tomato-faced” (p.70-72)

What Do I See ?

(Textual Evidence)

What Do I Know?

(How would I feel, act, or think in that situation?)

My Inference

(Conclusions/Deductions)

Name(s): _____________________________ Date: ___________ ELA 8 Period: __________ You are making inferences about Stargirl’s feelings, motivations, and thoughts when...

Stargirl is on the Hot Seat (p.62-67)

What Do I See ?

(Textual Evidence)

What Do I Know?

(How would I feel, act, or think in that situation?)

My Inference

(Conclusions/Deductions)

Name(s): _____________________________ Date: ___________ ELA 8 Period: __________ You are making inferences about Stargirl’s feelings, motivations, and thoughts when...

Stargirl left behind at Red Rock (p.53-54)

What Do I See ?

(Textual Evidence)

What Do I Know?

(How would I feel, act, or think in that situation?)

My Inference

(Conclusions/Deductions)

Name(s): _____________________________ Date: ___________ ELA 8 Period: __________ You are making inferences about Stargirl’s feelings, motivations, and thoughts when...

Stargirl attends Anna Grisdale’s grandfather’s funeral and Anna’s mother attacks her (p.44-47)

What Do I See ?

(Textual Evidence)

What Do I Know?

(How would I feel, act, or think in that situation?)

My Inference

(Conclusions/Deductions)

Name: ________________________________ Date: _____________ ELA 8 Period: ___________

A Walk in Stargirl’s Shoes Assignment

Due: Tomorrow 10/2/14

Choose and complete one of the tasks below and then write a short paragraph to answer the questions that follow. Task Choices (Circle your choice):

● Find someone at school you’ve never spoken to or do not know very well and start a conversation with that person.

● Create and deliver a handmade card for someone at school or home that you think is

underappreciated or needs their day brightened.

● Choose your own task; just first ask for teacher approval! You may also choose this option if you would like to write about a time you volunteered or completed a random act of kindness in the past.

If you have chosen this option, please explain what you did here: ___________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Once you have completed your task, answer all of the following questions in a short paragraph below:

● What task did you complete?

● How did this act of kindness make you feel? What reactions did you receive from others?

● How do you think Stargirl would feel about your actions and reactions? Make an inference based on what you know about her character.

Make sure to read your paragraph over for any spelling or grammar errors. You may type and staple this sheet to your typed response if you prefer.

A Walk in Stargirl’s Shoes Assignment Guided Outline

Use the below guided outline to help organize your thoughts before writing your final paragraph.

1. Hook/Introductory Sentence: In one sentence, explain what task you completed. DO NOT start your paragraph off with “The task I choose is…” Instead try something like “Recently, I was afforded the opportunity to…” and then explain your chosen task.

Record your introductory sentence here: ____________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

2. 2-3 Detail Sentences: Write 2 to 3 detail sentences explaining how the task/activity made you feel and the reactions you received from others. Record your detail sentences here:

(1) __________________________________________________________________

(2) __________________________________________________________________

(3) __________________________________________________________________

3. Conclusion/Summary Sentence(s): Connect your actions back to Stargirl. How do you think Stargirl would feel about your actions and reactions? Make an inference based on what you know about her character.

Record your conclusion/summary sentence(s): _________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

4. Now put all of your sentences together. Be sure to include transition words to connect your sentences and make your paragraph flow! Some examples of transition words are: first, also, not to mention, additionally, and however.

5. Edit your piece for grammar and spelling errors.

6. Staple this outline to your final copy and the assignment sheet.