lesson 5

Objective: Good readers are good thinkers. They make inferences when reading to help make sense of the text and gain deeper understanding.

Learning Intention: WALT make inferences when we are reading.

Success Criteria:

I can:

• identify text clues.

• use my prior knowledge to decipher text clues.

• record my inferences with supporting evidence.

Read the following poem to students:

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

https://youtu.be/O4XFCxNY96k

Hook: Ask students:

• Have you ever had to make a hard decision between two options? What helped you decide?

Tell them today’s poem is about someone facing a choice, and they’ll need to read between the lines to figure out what it really means.

Review: Briefly define inference:

An inference is a conclusion we draw based on clues in the text and our own thinking.

2. First Reading (10 minutes)

• Read the poem aloud or play youtube clip.

• Ask students to listen without marking anything yet — just absorb the rhythm and tone.

3. Second Reading – Annotate for Clues (10–15 minutes)

• Hand out the poem and ask students to highlight or underline any lines that:

  • Express emotion

• • Suggest a decision or a feeling of uncertainty

• • Contain figurative language (e.g., metaphors)

Example clues:

• “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”

• “And sorry I could not travel both”

• “I doubted if I should ever come back.”

4. Inference Practice (15 minutes)

Use a T-chart graphic organizer:

Text Clue                                                        My Inference

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood        _______________________________________________

"and sorry I could not travel both"          __________________________________________________

“And be one traveller, long I stood”          He struggled between choosing which path to take.

“I doubted if I should ever come back.”   __________________________________________________

Encourage students to work in pairs to fill in their charts, then share a few examples with the class.

5. Discussion (5–10 minutes)

Ask:

• What do you think the poem is really about?

• Do you think the speaker regrets his choice? Why or why not?

• What is the “road” a metaphor for?

• 
  

Guide students toward the idea that the poem isn’t just about a walk in the woods, but about life choices and their consequences.

Optional Extension

• Write a journal response: Write about a time you made a tough decision. What did you choose, and how did it affect you?

• Create a visual metaphor of the “two roads” representing a life choice.