Mia's Mystery Birthday Party

Learning intention:  

I am learning to use comprehension strategies to make predictions about the meanings of subject-specific vocabulary by building on literal and inferred meanings so that I can identify the meanings of unfamiliar words when I read.  

 

Success criteria:  

• I can identify unfamiliar vocabulary in a story.  
• I can use context to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.  
• I can compose a sentence that allows readers to infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word.  

 

Read Mia’s Mystery Birthday Party through once without pausing to discuss elements of the story. Those with a digital subscription may prefer to listen to the audio file of the story. 

Read Mia’s Mystery Birthday Party for the second time, this time pausing to identify vocabulary unfamiliar to some students. Avoid revealing the meanings of each of the words just yet. Instead, inform students that they will be making their own predictions about the meanings. List the vocabulary students identify on the board. Ideas of unfamiliar vocabulary includes:  

• pneumonia  
• drawbridge  

• antenna 
• jousting 
• jackhammer 
• fortune teller 
• trapeze 

• piñata 
• jacaranda 
• windup 

Discuss strategies students commonly use when they encounter unfamiliar words such as, looking the words up in a dictionary, asking a friend, using the context to assist them with identifying the meaning.  

Inform students that they will be using the context to assist them with predicting the meanings of each of the words they have identified.  

Discuss the first word on the list (pneumonia). Inform any students who already know what the word ‘pneumonia’ means to keep it to themselves for now to allow the rest of the students to work through strategies for identifying the meaning. Instead, they should write the meaning on a piece of scrap paper to support them with resisting the urge of sharing it at this time.  Refer back to the story and identify the sentence ‘pneumonia’ appears in.  

‘It’s a bit too cold to walk the plank,’ said Dad. ‘We don’t want your friends getting pneumonia!’  

Use the think-aloud strategy to reflect on how the word has been used in the sentence, emphasising how familiar vocabulary used in the sentence can provide clues:  

For example, 

• ‘cold’ implies that pneumonia is related to being cold. Discuss what else happens in the cold, ensuring students conclude that being unwell is often related to being cold  

• ‘don’t want’ which implies pneumonia is something to be avoided 
• ‘getting’ which implies pneumonia is something you don’t already have but that you can acquire or catch 

Discuss predictions about what ‘pneumonia’ might mean based on students’ inferences. Steer students towards concluding that pneumonia is a type of illness. Allow any students who wrote down their ideas about what the word might mean to share what they wrote.  

Place students in pairs and allocate them each some of the words from the list on the board. Instruct students to use the same strategy, analysing the context and the other vocabulary in the sentence to infer the meaning of each of their allocated words.  

Once students have had time to work through some of the words, discuss students responses. Encourage students to share the clues that allowed them to make their predictions.  

Inform students that they will be composing their own sentences, experimenting with using context to allow readers to make predictions about the meanings of unknown words.  

Refer back to Mia’s Mystery Birthday Party and discuss how often using the conjunction ‘and’ to connect an idea with the unknown word allows readers to make inferences. For example,   

We could dig a moat around our house and build a drawbridge and fly a flag from the TV antenna. (Highlight that here the use of ‘and’ implies a ‘drawbridge’ is related to a ‘moat’ and a ‘flag’, which are both related to castles. Emphasise that this guides readers to inferring a drawbridge also relates to a castle.) 

Identify further examples where the other words included in the sentence have allowed readers to infer the meaning of the unknown word. For example:  

We’d have to jackhammer the driveway to dig the moat (highlighting that the word ‘dig’ allows readers to infer that a jackhammer has something to do with digging) 

‘How about a circus party with Zoltar the Fortune Teller and a fairy floss machine! We could build a flying trapeze and a tightrope… (emphasising that vocabulary such as ‘circus’, ‘build’, and ‘flying’ allow readers to infer a trapeze is used in a circus and that it has something to do with flying) 

Provide students with dictionaries. Collaboratively select a word students may be unfamiliar with. Alternatively, select a word from the article Unfamiliar Words. For example ‘accord’. Identify the meaning (concurrence of opinion) and ensure students are aware that this means agreeing on something.  

Discuss how a sentence might be constructed that would allow readers to infer the meaning of the word. Experiment with ideas, using strategies used in Mia’s Mystery Birthday Party (using words familiar to students to provide clues and using to word ‘and’ to connect two related ideas). Sample responses have been provided below:  

• We could ask those who concur with the main idea to stand on the right-hand side of the room.  
• In a discussion it is important to show you concur and that you are happy to go along with the plan.  

Instruct students to work with their partner to identify a word unfamiliar to them from the dictionary or from the article Unfamiliar Words. Tell students to compose a sentence that allows readers to infer the meaning of the word without stating it specifically.  

Once students have had time to compose their sentences, match them with another pair. Instruct students to read each other’s’ sentences and to use comprehension strategies to infer the meaning of the unfamiliar words. Share responses, commenting on the strategies students used to allow them to predict the meanings of the words.