Inference or Reading

What is inference? Inference or inferring is like detective work - seeking clues, resolving mysteries, figuring out whodunit or what the text is about even though it does not explicitly state it in the text.

Sam ate the food on her plate without slowing down between bites. What is inferred?

Sam is a girl………we know that by the author’s use of the pronoun ‘she’ She is hungry………..author implies by saying ‘she didn’t slow down’

How would you revise your inference after reading the next sentence in the excerpt………… Her bus would be arriving in two minutes.

Is she really hungry? No, now I think she is in a hurry. I have put together what I know to revise my inferences

Inference is…….. Given information such as a set of numbers, a collection of diary entries, a poem, an essay or a photograph, you are expected to read between the lines, ‘crunch the numbers’ and find meaning Once you have interpreted and inferred, you are then expected to come up with new meanings - synthesis.

He put down $10. 00 at the window He put down $10.00 at the window. The woman behind the window gave him back $4.00. The person next to him gave him $3.00, but he gave it back to her. So, when they went inside, she bought him a large bag of popcorn.

Inferences you could make…… A man and a woman on a date Gone to the movies Cost of the movie $3.00 per person Must have been a long time ago because of cost and perhaps woman behind window The woman doesn’t want the man to pay for her He is nice because he won’t take her money She doesn’t want him to pay for everything so she buys him popcorn

We have made inferences that were …. Text-based – from information that the author supplies about the text Knowledge-based – from knowledge you have about the world

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Bumper Stickers

MY OTHER CAR IS A PAIR OF BOOTS.

Answer my prayers…..Steal this car!

This is not an abandoned vehicle!

Bumper sticker on a police car… Don’t slow down on my account. But if you don’t, it will probably hurt your account.

Bumper sticker on a teenager’s car…. A floorboard? There’s carpet on the floorboard?

Signs posted in places……

A mom put this sign on her teenaged son’s door…… Enter at your own risk; an unknown bacteria is said to be growing in this room.

A sign in a football team’s locker room……. I am your coach, not your mother.

A sign at the vet’s office……. Puddles are for jumping over, not walking through!

A sign at the library……… Check it out……really!

What can help make you inferences Look for pronouns and figure out what to connect them to Figure out explanations for these events Think about the setting and see what details you can add Think about something that you know about in the text and see how that fit’s with what’s actually in the text

After you read a section, see if you can explain why the character acted this way Look at how a character says something. How would you have interpreted what the character said if different words were stressed or if he had said something different

Look for words you don’t know and see if any of the other words in the sentence or surrounding sentences can give you an idea of what those unknown words mean As you read a section, look for clues that would tell you how the author might feel about a character

It Says – I Say – And So It Says – I Say – And So Question It Says 1. Read the question 2. Find information from the text that will help you answer that information 3. Think about what you know about that information 4. Combine what the text says with what you know to come up with the answer

It Says – I Say – And So Example Question It Says I Say And So Why did Goldilocks break Baby Bear’s chair? Story says she sits down in the baby chair but she’s no baby. Baby chairs aren’t very big because they’re for babies and she is bigger so she weighs more. And so she is too heavy for it and it breaks