Play Detective

Explain Remind students that when they draw conclusions about a story they use information from the text and their own experience to form opinions about the characters, setting, or plot. Discuss stories that the class has read recently, and have students draw conclusions about which character was the best problem-solver.

Guided Practice Describe the traits and actions of a superhero character to students. For example, Ms. Dash can run 100 miles per hour. She once swam across the Pacific Ocean. She protects ordinary people from criminals, including the evil mastermind Mr. Doom. Then have students draw conclusions to complete this sentence: I can tell Ms. Dash is the main character of a fantasy, not a realistic story, because ________.

Practice Have students work in small groups to create a character who has a secret. Have each group brainstorm five clues to the secret and write each clue on a separate index card. Then have groups challenge each other to guess the secret using as few of the clues as possible.