Drawing Conclusions

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Drawing Conclusions
7th Grade Communication Arts

• Using Shadowmaker
• by Joan Lowery Nixon

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Teacher Page

• Content Communication Arts
• Grade Level Seventh Grade
• Created by Yvonne
• Objective Drawing conclusions from text.
  Identifying and determining the meaning from
  figurative language.

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Steps to Drawing Conclusions

• Read the passage carefully.
• Determine the facts of the passage, the events,
  what the character says and does. This will be
  your evidence for your conclusion.
• State your conclusion.
• Check with the evidence and see if it fully
  supports your conclusion. Make sure there is no
  evidence that works against it.
• If the question is a short answer question,
  include all of your evidence in your answer.

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Now you try it!
Read pages 25-26 in Shadowmaker.
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Step 1, read the poem below

• New girl in school? Who says Im new?
• Im the same sparrow Ive always been,
• but Ive been plucked from my nest
• And dropped into a town too small,
• with roads too dusty and a sea too gray.
• I cry out because the fall has lamed me, but no
  one hears.
• Gulls squabble over a dead fish,
• and cluster tightly to pick the bones.
• Staring with black beady eyes
• at the wounded sparrow who flaps into their
  unity,
• They fly off in a pack, squawking, Shes new!
  Shes new!
• The sparrow limps alone, and no one cares.
• Shadowmaker by Joan Lowery Nixon

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Step 2, determine the facts

• List as many facts as you can get out of this
  passage.
• They may include
• It is about a girl in school.
• She is in a new place, been plucked from her
  nest.
• She has people around her that say shes new.
• Shes in a small town near the sea.
• The sea gulls are picking at a dead fish and then
  circle around a sparrow.
• No one cares for the sparrow who was lamed in the
  fall.

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Step 3, state your conclusions

• Using the statements of fact you wrote down, what
  conclusions can you draw?
• They may include
• The girl is not happy about a recent move.
• The girl feels that she is handicapped in some
  way where she is.
• The girl feels unwelcome and picked on.
• The girl feels that no one is listening to her.
• Seagulls are going to attack her.

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Step 4, check your conclusion with the facts

• The girl is not happy about a recent move. Yes,
  that can be supported by the evidence because she
  says that shes been plucked from her nest and
  she was put in a town too small.
• The girl feels handicapped in some way in the
  move. Yes, that can be supported because it
  says, the fall has lamed me. . .
• The girl feels unwelcome and picked on. Yes,
  that can be supported because it says she is
  wounded and flaps into their unity. She also
  depicts the others as picking at the bones and
  staring with beady eyes.

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Continued-Checking Facts

• She feels no one is listening to her. Yes, this
  can be supported because she says, no one
  hears.
• The seagulls are going to attack her. No, this
  cannot be supported because it never says they
  attack, in fact it says they fly off.
• The seagulls are the other students. This is
  what? How do you know?
• A metaphor, because she compares herself to a
  sparrow.

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