Mentor Texts for Teaching Making Inferences

Making inferences is one of the key reading skills that good readers need to master! Piecing together information from the text and reading between the lines is almost intuitive for some readers, but for others, it’s a skill that can be taught over time.

Using mentor texts is a great way to focus on inferences. Stopping every now and then to use think-aloud strategies and pair-share discussions will reinforce the idea that readers are thinkers, and making inferences is a big part of that thinking!

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Here are a few of my favorites picture books with strong inference examples!

 

The Bracelet Mentor Text for Teaching Making Inferences

1. The Bracelet

The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida follows a young, Japanese-American girl, Emi, who must leave her home during World War Two. As a parting gift, Emi’s friend gives her a special bracelet, but when she loses it in her new home, Emi worries she may lose the memory of her friend forever.

 

The Bear Ate Your Sandwich Mentor Text for Teaching Making Inferences

2. The Bear Ate Your Sandwich

The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach is a light-hearted tale about a bear who finds himself lost in the city. The adventure truly begins, however, when the bear stumbles upon an unattended sandwich in the park.

 

Two Bad Ants Mentor Text for Teaching Making Inferences

3. Two Bad Ants

Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg is about two greedy ants who, in search of crystals for their queen, stay behind in the kitchen’s sugar bowl and fall sound asleep after eating more than their fill of sugar. These ants are in for a rude awakening when they are scooped from the sugar bowl and plopped into a cup of boiling-hot coffee.

 

Tar Beach Mentor Text

4. Tar Beach

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold describes the fantasies of its full-of-life heroine, Cassie Louise Lightfoot, who, on a summer night in Harlem, flies over the George Washington Bridge. Besides using this one for inferences, I love having kids do a Tar Beach-inspired art project. The collage borders of the book are so beautiful!

 

Stellaluna Mentor Text for Teaching Making Inferences

5. Stellaluna

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon is a sweet story of a young fruit bat, Stellaluna, who becomes separated from her mother and must find her way home. She eventually finds comfort when she encounters a nest of birds who take her in.

 

City Dog, Country Frog Mentor Text

6. City Dog, Country Frog

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems explores the passing seasons, as well as the unlikely friendship between a frog and a dog.

 

Where are you going Manyoni Mentor Text

7. Where Are You Going Manyoni

Where Are You Going Manyoni by Catherine Stock is filled with beautiful illustrations. The story follows a young girl, Manyoni, on her two-hour morning journey to school.

The Memory Coat Mentor Text

8. The Memory Coat

The Memory Coat by Elvira Woodruff is a thoughtful picture book in which readers will discover how a Russian boy’s tattered, woolen coat helps him to enter America.

 

9. The Boy Who Grew Flowers

The Boy Who Grew Flowers by Jen Wojtowicz is about a special boy, Rink, who grows beautiful flowers all over his body whenever the moon is full. While members of his school and town think of Rink as an outcast, Rink feels a little less alone when he discovers that a new girl at school has a few special powers of her own, too.

 

Mentor Texts for Teaching Making Inferences Book List 1

 

 

Here are a few more mentor texts for teaching making inferences:

Bootsie Barker Bites by Barbara Bottner

The Invisible Box by Trudy Ludwig

The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Allsburg

The Wreck of the Zephyr by Chris Van Allsburg

The Royal Bee by Frances and Ginger Park

Storm is Coming by Heath Tekavec

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan

Mr. Peabody’s Apples by Madonna and Loren Long

Dear Juno by Soyung Pak

 

Are you looking for ready-made inference resources?

These are entire print and digital units loaded with passages, task cards, and more:

3rd-5th Grades Inferences Using Literature

Making Inferences Using Literature - Inference Activities 3rd - 5th Grades

3rd Grade Inferences Using Informational Text

Inferences Using Informational Text for 3rd Grade

4th and 5th Grade Inferences Using Informational Text

Making Inferences Informational Text Nonfiction Inference Activities Inferencing

 

I LOVE these digital units to reinforce learning! These have 2 passages, vocabulary, comprehension, and focused inference slides. Students enjoy the drag and drop, interactive format! The links are for fiction units, but they also come in nonfiction too.

4th Grade Making Inferences Digital Reading Unit

5th Grade Making Inferences Fiction

 

Want to READ MORE about how to teach making inferences?

8 Activities to Build Inference Skills 

Using Text Evidence to Make Inferences

Making Inferences Using Nonfiction Text

5 Reasons to Use Mentor Text With Big Kids

 

Mentor Texts for Teaching Making Inferences Book List 2

 

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