Putting two and two together and reading beyond the lines Inferring Putting two and two together and reading beyond the lines

What can you assume about the person who owns this object?

As the opening demonstration displayed, inferring involves the actions of drawing conclusions, generalizing, or making predictions. Simply put, inferring requires us to piece together clues to formulate a theory or assumption. The answer/solution isn’t specifically stated, but if we’re paying careful attention, it isn’t hard to figure out!

Ways to infer… 1) Drawing conclusions – putting together information shared in the passage with assumptions based on your own experiences. 2) Forming generalizations – moving beyond the simple act of guessing, and making a valid judgment based on evidence. 3) Making predictions – guessing what might happen based on information in the story and from your own experience. Given that these definitions sound similar in comparison to each other, it’s easy to see why they all fall into the category of inferring.

LET’S PRACTICE DRAWING CONCLUSIONS Pretend you are at Wal-Mart. As you are walking down the candy aisle, you notice a little boy crying and pulling on his mom’s skirt as she pushes her cart towards the front of the store. The closer she gets toward the front of the store, the louder the little boy screams. Lots of things could be wrong with the little boy, but we can probably conclude that—

Given the timing of Little Ann’s death and the place in which her body was found, the reader can conclude that – She died of natural causes, and it was just a coincidence that it was shortly after Old Dan’s death. b) She didn’t want to live without her faithful companion, and intentionally stopped eating as she couldn’t overcome her broken heart. c) She must have eaten something poisonous near Old Dan’s grave, which ultimately caused her death. d) Billy just stopped taking care of Little Ann because he was so upset about Old Dan’s death, so she died from neglect.

Note: The novel never came right out and told us why Little Ann died, but when we piece together the clues, we can infer the cause, and accurately draw a conclusion about the reason she left this Earth.

If after a teacher grades a test he/she notices that more than 50% of the students failed it, what generalization might he or she form? The questions were too tough The material wasn’t covered in enough detail More time should have been spent reviewing Ultimately, the teacher would most likely throw that grade out based on these generalizations.

His overall average will increase by twenty points. A student named James really struggles when it comes to the subject of math. During the first six weeks, he failed every quiz and test given. Then he decided to start attending tutorials on a regular basis. When he went once a week, his overall average increased by five points. When he went twice a week, his average went up by 10 points. What can we predict will happen if he attends tutorials four times a week? His overall average will increase by twenty points. Based on the information given, we can establish a pattern, and make a solid prediction about what will happen in the future.