Teaching students how to make inferences is an essential part of building strong reading comprehension skills. Inferences are what allow students to connect dots, uncover underlying meaning, and truly understand a text beyond the surface level. But for students, making inferences can sometimes feel abstract. That’s where interactive learning strategies and game-based lesson plans can make all the difference!
In this blog post, you’ll learn how to teach inference through a mystery-based activity to help students develop critical thinking and textual analysis skills. If you’re looking for new lesson plan ideas on how to make inferences stick, you’re in the right place!
How to Make Inferences: Why This Skill Matters
When students know how to make inferences, they begin to ask better questions, seek out evidence, and approach texts with a critical eye. These are the kinds of skills we want students to carry with them into every subject area, as well as far beyond the classroom.
How to Make Inferences: Using a “Solve a Mystery Game” to Support Engagement
Students tend to thrive when they’re placed in scenarios that require real problem-solving. That’s what makes “The Case of the Lost Manuscript” such a powerful inference lesson plan. In this “solve a mystery game,” students become investigators to examine clues, analyze characters, and draw conclusions – all while practicing how to make inferences in an authentic and exciting context.
One of the biggest challenges in inference instruction is student engagement. It can be difficult for students to grasp what inference looks like in action. That’s why it’s important that students are immediately immersed in a high-interest scenario. In this making inferences lesson, a famous author’s manuscript has gone missing, and it’s up to your students to figure out who took it.
This “solve a mystery game” is structured around an intentional inference lesson plan. Students will receive an Investigation Briefing, analyze multiple pieces of evidence, evaluate suspect profiles, and ultimately present their conclusions with textual support. In every step of this activity, they’re using inference to navigate the mystery.
What makes this activity so meaningful is how naturally the inference process unfolds. As they piece together alibis, timelines, and textual details, they’re making connections on their own. The learning happens through the experience itself.
Solving a Mystery Game: “The Case of the Lost Manuscript”
Transform your lesson on making inferences into a thrilling adventure with this solving a mystery game! Students will explore “The Case of the Lost Manuscript” to make inferences and solve the mystery. Whether you teach in a middle school or early high school setting, this lesson plan meets students where they are while pushing them to think critically.
Here’s what’s included in this making inferences lesson plan:
- an investigation briefing overview slideshow
- an investigation briefing overview handout
- investigation clue cards, evidence documents, and suspect profiles
- a plot development worksheet
- a final presentation template
- an editable 4-level rubric for assessment
- a detailed answer key
- teacher instructions for using this resource
Everything is available in both digital and ready-to-print formats, so you can choose what works best for your classroom. One teacher shared that the lesson was easy to use – and that their students were so engaged, they kept talking about it days after it was over!
To preview this resource and see what other teachers like you have said, click here.
How to Make Inferences: Planning a Meaningful Inference Lesson
There are so many ways to build this inference lesson plan into your curriculum. You can use it as a culminating activity at the end of an inference unit, or introduce it earlier on to spark interest and build foundational skills. It also serves as an engaging activity for the end of the year.
One of the strengths of this resource is how seamlessly it aligns with common standards for reading comprehension. Specifically, the lesson supports CCSS RL.6.1 and RL.7.1, which ask students to cite textual evidence to support analysis and draw inferences.
Because the activity is designed as a performance task, it also supports skills like collaboration, discussion, and presentation. Students are encouraged to talk through their thinking, compare perspectives, and refine their interpretations – just as they would in a formal seminar or academic discussion.
One way to extend this activity is to challenge students to write a reflection or even create their own mystery using a similar structure. By stepping into the role of both reader and writer, students begin to see inference as a transferable skill that applies to many contexts.
How to Make Inferences: Tying It All Together
Teaching how to make inferences becomes much more engaging when students are given a meaningful task to apply their skills. With “The Case of the Lost Manuscript,” students are thinking critically, solving problems, and having fun along the way. Whether you’re looking to introduce inference in a creative way or reinforce skills in a memorable format, this “solve a mystery game” offers everything you need for a successful inference lesson plan!
