5th Grade: Drawing Conclusions from Reading Materials



5th Grade: Drawing Conclusions from Reading Materials

1. In this lesson you will learn how to draw conclusions from materials you read.

2. The dictionary defines conclusion as “the judgment, decision, or opinion formed after an investigation or thought process.”

3. You draw conclusions every day about incidents you witness, information you gather or about texts you read. If you see smoke filtering out of the kitchen and the smoke alarm is buzzing, what conclusion would you draw? There is a fire in the kitchen!

4. The first decision you make when reading is to determine what type of material you are reading. What is the source? Is it fiction or fact? When you know the type or category of text, then you receive your first clues about what kind of conclusions can be determined.

5. Let’s use the Internet to practice finding out the type and source of reading materials.

6. Click on the website below and find out what type of resource it shows. Briefly scan the front page, and then go to the next page in this lesson.



7. What did you find? It was the online version of the New York Times, a daily newspaper from New York City. What could you conclude that you could read in this newspaper?

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8. You would find news articles, sports articles, classified ads, reviews of movies, editorials, features and photos. How did you draw this conclusion? Your personal knowledge and experience of having read other newspapers gives you the ability to conclude what you can probably read in the New York Times.

9. It is easiest to draw conclusions from nonfiction or scientific sources. The facts are presented and are usually backed up with specific data. Drawing conclusions from fiction, poetry or other literature is not as easy and sometimes there can be more than one conclusion that is subject to debate.

10. Let’s start with a simple type of conclusion – the main point of a story. You are going to read the Aesop Fable, The Hart and the Hunter to determine the moral point. As you read the story, look for clues on what the character is supposed to learn.

11.

The Hart and the Hunter

The Hart was once drinking from a pool and admiring the noble figure he made there. “Ah,” said he, “where can you see such noble horns as these, with such antlers! I wish I had legs more worthy to bear such a noble crown; it is a pity they are so slim and slight.” At that moment a Hunter approached and sent an arrow whistling after him. Away bounded the Hart, and soon, by the aid of his nimble legs, was nearly out of sight of the Hunter. However, not noticing where he was going, he passed under some trees with branches growing low down and his antlers were caught. The hunter had time to come up. “Alas! Alas!” cried the Hart, “_______?_______”

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What is the moral point of this fable?

12. Instructions: In order to determine the moral conclusion to The Hart and the Hunter, answer the following questions in the box and click on the submit button (online version).

1. What did the Hart brag about?

2. What did the Hart complain about?

3. How did the Hart initially escape the Hunter?

4. How did the Hunter finally catch the Hart?

5. What can you conclude is the moral or lesson

learned in this story?

13. The last words of the Hart were: “We often despise what is most useful to us.” Was your answer similar to this idea?

14. The Literature Game will test your conclusion making skills by giving you multiple choice questions on selections from three literature sources: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, and The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service.

See online course.

15. Literature Game #1

from The Secret Garden

“I like you! I like you!” she cried out, pattering down the walk; and she chirped and tried to whistle, which the least she did not know how to do in the least. But the robin seemed to be quite satisfied and chirped and whistled back at her. At last he spread his wings and made a darting flight to the top of the tree, where he perched and sang loudly. That reminded Mary of the first time she had seen him. He had been swinging on a tree-top then and she had been standing in the orchard. Now she was on the other side of the orchard and standing in the path outside a wall—much lower down – and there was the same tree inside.

“It’s in the garden no one can go into,” she said to herself. “It’s the garden without a door.” He lives in there. How I wish I could see what it is like!”

She ran up the walk to the green door she had entered the first morning. Then she ran down the path through the other door and then into the orchard, and when she stood and looked up there was the tree on the other side of the wall, and there was the robin just finishing his song and, beginning to preen his feathers back with his beak.

“It is the garden,” she said. “I am sure it is.”

She walked round and looked closely at that side of the orchard wall, but she only found what she had found before – that there was no door in it. Then she ran through the kitchen-gardens again and out into the walk outside the long ivy-covered wall, and she walked to the end of it and looked at it, but there was no door; and then she walked to the other end, looking again, but there was no door.

“It’s very queer,” she said. “Ben Weatherstaff said there was no door and there is no door. But there must have been one ten years ago, because Mr. Craven buried the key.”

This gave her so much to think of that she began to be quite interested and feel that she was not sorry that she had come to Misselthwaite Manor. In India she had always felt hot and too languid to care much about anything. The fact was that the fresh wind from the moor had begun to blow the cobwebs out of her young brain and to waken her up a little.

Questions for text:

1. How many times has Mary seen the robin?

a) once c) more than once

b) ten times d) never

2. How does Mary know the robin lives in the

garden?

a) she’s seen him there more than once

b) she followed him into the garden

c) the gardener told her

d) the robin told her

3. How does Mary conclude this is the secret

garden?

a) the sign says, “Secret Garden”

b) she can’t find a door through the wall

c) there is no garden

d) she climbs upon the wall

4. How do you know Mary is becoming happier in her

new home at Misselthwaite Manor?

a) she makes friends

b) Mr. Craven loves her

c) she doesn’t remember India

d) the mystery of the garden intrigues her

16. Literature Game #2

from “Tom Sawyer”

She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and “jimpson” weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom. So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and shouted:

“Y-o-u-u TOM!”

There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.

“There! I might ‘a’ thought of that closet. What you been doing in there?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What IS that truck?”

“I don’t know, aunt.”

“Well, I know. It’s jam – that’s what it is. Forty times I’ve said if you didn’t let that jam alone I’d skin you. Hand me that switch.”

The switch hovered in the air – the peril was desperate –

“My! Look behind you, aunt!”

The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The lad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-fence, and disappeared over it.

His Aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle laugh.

Questions for Tom Sawyer:

1. How do you know Aunt Polly loves Tom?

a) she spanks him

b) she tells him

c) a friend tells Tom

d) she laughs at his behavior

2. What can you conclude about Tom’s character?

a) Tom is obedient

b) Tom is evil

c) Tom is mischievous

d) Tom is dumb

3. How do you know Tom is smart?

a) Aunt Polly says he’s smart

b) Tom thinks quickly how to escape

c) Tom is caught

d) Tom had a good hiding place

4. What kind of story is this going to be?

a) fable

b) mystery

c) adventure

d) biography

17. Literature Game #3 Sam McGee

from “The Cremation of Sam McGee”

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who toil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was the night on the marge of the Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

(skips a stanza)

On Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson Trail;

Talk of your cold! Through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.

If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see;

It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,

And the dogs were fed, and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel and toe,

He turned to me, and “Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess;”

And if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.”

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no; then he says with a sort of moan;

“It’s the cursed cold, and it’s got right hold till I’m chilled clean through to the bone.

Yet ‘tain’t being dead – it’s my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;

So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you’ll cremate my last remains.”

A pal’s last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;

And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! He looked ghastly pale.

He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;

And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

(not the end of the poem – only the beginning)

Questions on Sam McGee:

1. Where does the story take place?

a) the west coast

b) the Arctic

c) the ocean

d) the city

2. Why are the narrator and Sam in the Arctic?

a) to hunt

b) to run sled dog races

c) to look for gold

d) to fish on the lake

3. Who is going to die?

a) the narrator

b) the gold miners

c) Sam McGee

d) the dogs

4. What is the FIRST clue that Sam is sick?

a) it is cold

b) his eyelashes are frozen

c) he’s the only one to whimper

d) he’s feeling low

5. Why does Sam want to be cremated if he dies?

a) his fear of a cold, icy grave

b) that’s what is done in the Arctic

c) he’s from Tennessee

d) so wild animals won’t eat him

6. How do we know Sam missed Tennessee?

a) he wants to go home

b) he writes a letter to his family

c) the narrator talks about Tennessee

d) he raves about Tennessee on his last day

7. What can you conclude about life in the Arctic

during the gold rush?

a) it was fun

b) most miners became rich

c) it was warm

d) it was harsh

18. Summary

This lesson has taught how to draw conclusions from different reading materials. You have practiced making conclusions from nonfiction, fiction and poetry.

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