Fourth graders at Varina Elementary have been learning how to make inferences and predictions (SOL4.5h,i) so today students in Ms. Dixon’s class practiced creating their own using Google Docs. Since this was their first time using Google docs, I also wanted to teach them some basic word processing skills such as changing the font, size, and color of the text. I instructed them to write about a person saying or doing things in such a way that the reader could infer how a person was feeling, without actually telling the reader how the person was feeling. Then a partner read their situation and inferred how the person was feeling. They wrote their reply in a different color. Next, the partner wrote a new scenario where the reader would have to make a prediction about what would happen next. They switched back, and the original writer wrote their prediction in a different color. If you had additional time, you could show your students how to insert a picture, but this was just a quick lesson. It gave the students some practice inferring and predicting while also learning some basic word processing skills.
