The cooler temperatures make the think of pumpkin spice, bonfires, and… Chris Van Allsburg! His books are must-reads for upper elementary teachers. The fun storylines easily catch students’ attention. In this post I will highlight how I use his book, The Stranger, to teach my students to make inferences.
To introduce inferencing to your students, check out this free download. These pages are perfect for interactive reading notebooks.
About the Book
In this story, a family accidentally runs over a man while he is on a walk. They take him back to their house and call the doctor. While the stranger is at their house, they notice very odd things about him.
Chris Van Allsburg creates a mystery for his readers. They must use their best inferencing skills to discover who the stranger is.
Teaching Inferencing with The Stranger
When I read this text, the biggest comprehension focus is teaching inferencing with The Stranger.
As students read the book, I have them ponder who the stranger might be. They use clues from the text to solve the mystery that Van Allsburg has laid out for them.
My students use this sheet to keep track of clues about the stranger as they read. We post the clues on an anchor chart for everyone to see during our class discussion.
What makes the stranger strange? He does not know how to talk. He is confused by buttons. He has no body temperature (as noted by the “broken” thermometer. He is fascinated by soup. When he blows on the soup, the room gets colder. The wild bunnies come to him. He does not get tired or sweat when he is working. He is upset by the green leaves on the trees. He likes the red and orange leaves better. He blows on the leaf. When he leaves, fall comes. He writes in frost “See you next fall.”
What is unusual about the setting of the story? Summer lasts longer. The pumpkins grow larger than ever before. The leaves change around the farm, but the leaves on the farm trees stay green. As soon as the stranger leaves the farm, the leaves turn green.
So, who is the stranger? Spoiler alert… Jack Frost! Some may also call him Father Winter. Either guess is correct. This is never stated specifically in the text. Figuring this out takes lots of brain power and multiple reads of the text.
Usually, I only have a few students who figure this out independently. Most students figure it out during the class discussion we have after reading the text.
Additional Activities
Additional activities for this text include reading response questions, and a short text explaining how a mercury thermometer works. In today’s digital age, many students have never seen a mercury thermometer before.
You can check out my complete product for The Stranger here. This is my best selling resource!
Looking for more Chris Van Allsburg? Check out my post about his book Two Bad Ants, here!
