1. Action Research Project:
Making Inferences

2. Focus and Rationale for Research
Rose Hill Middle School LA/SS 6thGraders
About ½ of the group struggle to apply reading strategies without guidance
Many are dependent readers who need support analyzing text and drawing conclusions

3. Observation
Students leave sections of assessments blank that require analytical thinking
Students do not use evidence to support an idea
Students do not go into detail and explain an idea
Students stare at me blankly when I ask a question

4. Source of the Problem
Lack of modeling inferential thinking and text analysis
Lack of explicit and direct instruction that shows the step by step process of inferential thinking and text analysis
Lack of scaffolding to support readers who are unable to apply reading strategies independently

5. Research Findings
“Using Literature to Teach Inference across the Curriculum” (Bintz, 2012)
Inference making is the heart of meaning construction
Scaffold using two column graphic organizer
Column 1: what the text says
Column 2: what text means

6. Research Findings “The Main Idea Strategy” (Boudah, 2014)
Help students go beyond literal meaning with a close read
Prompt students to find words that seem important
Use details from the text to infer meaning
Pretest and Post-test Comprehension Questions

7. Research Findings “Searching For Evidence” (Gormley, 2015)
Develop close read strategies
Problem solve while rereading and taking notes
Uncover layers of meaning by examining text for central ideas
What is the author saying?
How does the author prove it?

8. Research Findings “Detective Question” (Jimenez- Fernandez, 2015)
How do students deduce information that does not appear explicitly in the text?
Poor vocabulary #1 deficit to reading comprehension
Students circle hidden clues
Provide explicit instruction

9. Research Findings
“Making Inferences from Texts: It’s Vocabulary that Matters” (Lucas, 2015)
Decoding and language skills predict reading comprehension skills
Text-inferencing ability intimately associated with oral language skills
Interventions for children with reading deficits should target vocabulary knowledge

10. Putting Theory into Action
How can teachers support struggling readers, so they can be more skilled at effectively analyzing text-based evidence?
Good readers are analytical readers and actively think about the text they are reading
Struggling readers need to see explicit examples of how the thinking process works

11. Putting Theory into Action
Displayed a poster that said: I can cite text evidence to support my inferential thinking and analysis
Created vocabulary graphic organizer for the words: evidence, analysis, and inference
Students searched for synonyms and drew visuals

12. Putting Theory into Action
Designed baseline assessment that asked for text evidence and analysis on ancient India
How do you know the ancient Indians’ lives were similar to the lives of the Mesopotamians?
Provided rubric that measures students’ ability to cite and analyze text evidence

14. Putting Theory into Action

15. Data Analysis of Student Work
# of students
% of students proficient or higher
% of student s not proficient
% of high Level 2s
% of level 1s and 2s 23
60%
40%
27%
13%

16. Reading Strategy Intervention
Scaffold the learning
Model, coach, and guide
Find direct quotes from the novel Wednesday Wars that answers the question and record the quote word for word using quotation marks and the page number
Next to the quote record your thoughts and analysis of the quote.

18. Reading Strategy Intervention
Students struggled to provide detailed evidence and analysis
Use details to make inferences graphic organizer
Explicit definition of inference
Explicit example of inference
Write two details and your logical inference in each row of boxes

20. Learning Impact and Growth
Post test using same pretest graphic organizer and rubric
Record topic sentence in one box
Record text evidence in another box
Synthesize the parts into a coherent piece of writing.

22. Learning Impact and Growth
# of students
% of students proficient or higher
% of student s not proficient
% of high Level 2s
% of level 1s and 2s 23
82%
17% 0%

23. Moving Forward
What does it mean to teach comprehension strategies explicitly and directly?
Model the reading strategy
Show students steps involved in making an inference
Give students opportunities to try strategy without coaching and support

24. Moving Forward Develop skills to find meaning of unknown words
Develop skills to understand implied meanings of characters words
Develop skills to identify characters beliefs and motivations
Develop skills to explain ideas and events of the text

25. Moving Forward
Develop skills to understand the author’s world view and be able to recognize author’s biases
Develop skills to be able to relate what is happening in the text to their own knowledge of the world
Develop skills to use facts to draw conclusions