Metacogitive Reading Strategies: Part 3 Drawing Inferences… and Supporting them! What Good Readers Do to Build Meaning From Text

Let’s Review! What’s metacognition? –Thinking about your thinking “Talking with the text” in your head! Activating Schema –What is “schema”? Prior knowledge –What are the ways we can connect what we read to our schema? Text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world Visualization –What’s “visualization”? Crafting sensory and emotional images (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, emotion) –Live the text! –Show, don’t tell!

And Now Presenting Our Newest Strategy…

Drawing Inferences! “Reading between the lines” –Huh?! Understanding what’s implied, yet unstated. –Cause and effect relationships –Character motivations –Predictions –Answers to open-ended questions Drawn from schema and textual evidence –Not everyone’s inferences will be the same since not everyone’s schema is the same, but all inferences must be supported by the text! SchemaText Inference!

How does drawing inferences help our comprehension? We make the text our own! –Each student can offer their own meaningful inferences to add richness to discussion. –Creates your own textual fingerprint! Predictions drive us to read for meaning! –We want to discover if we were correct! We achieve a more complex, sophisticated understanding of the text! –College (and the ACT) rarely ask factual questions. They want students to go BEYOND the text!

Let’s Practice! What do I say when I draw inferences? “I predict…” “Using the text, I’m inferring that…” “I made an inference that….” “Reading between the lines, I discovered that…”

Supporting our Inferences Although drawing inferences is great, inferences are meaningless without evidence from the text to prove them. We MUST not only use our schema, but the TEXT as well! SchemaText Inference!

Supporting our Inferences In literary analysis writing, evidence for our inferences can be provided in the form of… direct quotations !!!!!! Textual

Using Quotation Marks There are three common situations when quotation marks should be used: 1) When writing the title of a short text, i.e. short story, article, or poem (ex: “The Necklace”) 2) When people are speaking in a story (dialogue) 3) When you’re borrowing someone else’s words (direct quotations) to use within our own writing We’re dealing with this one

Formatting Direct Quotations There are two rules when writing a direct quotation: 1) Words within quotation marks must be verbatim 2) Quotes must be cited Citation: Gives credit to the source –Includes author’s last name and the page number on which the quote occurred. Example: “When I started sixth grade, the other kids made fun of Brian and me because we were so skinny” (Walls 173 ). NOTICE THE PERIOD FALLS AFTER THE CITATION, NOT AFTER THE QUOTE!

Formatting Direct Quotations A quote ending in a period: “When I started sixth grade, the other kids made fun of Brian and me because we were so skinny” (Walls 173 ). A quote ending in a question mark ( special) : “Are you chewing something ? ” (Walls 174). A quote ending in an exclamation point (special) : “Feast time ! ” (Walls 172). What if you only want to borrow part of a sentence…?

Formatting Direct Quotations Use of an ellipses (…) –Indicates something has been removed –Original Quote: “When I started sixth grade, the other kids made fun of Brian and me because we were so skinny” (Walls 173 ). –Ellipses can be used: At the beginning: “…we were so skinny” (Walls 173). In the middle: “When I started sixth grade,…we were so skinny” (Walls 173). At the end: “When I started sixth grade, the other kids made fun of Brian and me…” (Walls 173).

Formatting Direct Quotations Rules of ellipses: 1) Even though words have been removed, the quote must still make sense. Bad: “When I…the other kids…we…so skinny” (Walls 173 ). Good: “When I started sixth grade…we were so skinny” (Walls 173 ). 2) You may not change or manipulate the meaning of the original text. Original: “Mom, weirdly, was getting heavier. One evening when Dad was away and we had nothing to eat…” (Walls 173). Bad: “Mom...had nothing to eat” (Walls 173). Good: “Mom…was getting heavier” (Walls 173).

Formatting Direct Quotations If quoting multiple pages, you must indicate that in your citation. Dash: “Dad had taken to disappearing for days at a time…Brian and I became expert foragers…When other girls came in and threw away their lunch bags in garbage pails, I’d go retrieve them” (Walls ). -A dash indicates “through” (171, 172, 173) Comma: “Dad had taken to disappearing for days at a time…When other girls came in and threw away their lunch bags in garbage pails, I’d go retrieve them” (Walls 171, 173). - A comma indicates “and” (171 and 173)

Formatting Direct Quotations When quoting dialogue, there will be multiple sets of quotation marks (one of you indicating you’ve borrowed words, and another for the characters speaking). When this happens, remember these two guidelines: 1) My quotes: Two bunny ears Book’s quotes: One bunny ear 2) You must close the same number of bunny ears as you open. Examples: – “ At one point Brian looked over. ‘ Are you chewing something? ’ he asked ” (Walls 174). –Now give it a try! My teeth hurt, Mom said, but she was getting all shifty-eyed…It’s my bad gums Walls 174

Let’s Practice! What are some examples of inferences? Inference : Using the text, I inferred that the narrator’s mother cares more for herself than her children. Textual Evidence : “…the other kids made fun of Brian and me because we were so skinny…One evening…Lying on the mattress next to Mom was one of those huge family-sized Hershey chocolate bars, the shiny silver wrapper pulled back and torn away. She’d already eaten half of it” (Walls ).

Let’s Practice! What are some examples of inferences? Inference : The parents’ actions do not demonstrate that they value their children. Because of this, the children often do not value themselves. Textual Evidence : “As they left, I heard him telling her that it was very serious…I could tell I was causing a big fuss, and I stayed quiet. One of them squeezed my hand and told me I was going to be okay. ‘I know,’ I said. ‘but if I’m not, that’s okay too’” (Walls 10).

Why Does it Matter? Drawing inferences helps students –Put their fingerprints on the text to make it their own! –Achieve a deeper understanding of the text! –Read for meaning! –Understand text in EVERY class! College professors DO NOT TEACH these things. –They expect you to walk in having perfected them. –You use these skills in every paper you write.

The End! (or is it…?)