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Reading Between the Lines: Making Inferences About Idioms
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Subject: Language Arts
Grades: 4-6
Overview
Idiomatic expressions are a great way to give students practice with inference skills. In this lesson plan, students practice using prior knowledge and textual information in order to infer (or guess) the meaning of idiomatic expressions.
Objectives
Students will:
· Learn the definition of “idiom”
· Identify idioms in passages
· Infer the meaning of unknown idioms through prior knowledge and textual information
· Write sentences that provide textual clues to the meaning of unknown idioms
IRA/NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts
Standard 4: Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
Standard 6: Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
Materials Needed
Getting Started
Write the following sentence on the chalkboard:
The cowboy rode into the sunset.
Call upon a volunteer to read the sentence aloud. Then ask: “What do you think the cowboy was riding?” (A horse.) Why is that a good guess? (Because cowboys usually ride horses.) Could the cowboy be riding a motorcycle into the sunset? (Maybe. But cowboys generally ride horses.)
Next, ask: “What direction was the cowboy riding?” (West) How do you know? (He was riding into the sunset and the sun sets in the West.)
Finally, ask: About what time of day was it? (Late afternoon; early evening.) How do you know? (The cowboy was riding into the sunset.)
Tell students that in answering these questions they used information they already knew about cowboys and about where the sun rises and sets. They were able to make a good guess or infer the answers to the questions based on this prior knowledge.
On the next page: lesson development and activity worksheet.
