1. Do writers give you ALL the information you need?
Making Inferences
Do writers give you ALL the information you need?
Usually, they give you some information and you have to decide what it means.
Making an inference- using things you already know to figure out the meaning

2. Real Life Inferences
Example: You go to your friends house and see their bike outside the open garage door. You ring the doorbell, but no one answers. Still, you believe that your friend must be home. WHY?

3. Explicit & implicit evidence
Explicit: directly stated in the text
Implicit: not stated, you must infer or figure it out based on what the text does say and what you already know

4. Explicit Textual Evidence – stated directly in the passage Example: It was a dark and stormy night.
Implicit Textual Evidence –Not stated directly, but reader understands it because of clues in the text. Example: The trees were swaying wildly outside Anne’s window as she prepared for bed, and the gutters were overflowing.
Now try some one your own:
1. The grass was green.
2. I could smell the toast.
3. We were sitting on the bus.
4. Sue fell on the sidewalk.

8. Making Inferences in Reading
In Reading, you’ll use Prior Knowledge and Context Clues to make an inference.

9. A Trip to the Store
Lisa went to the grocery store to pick up some things. When she got to the checkout line, she realized she didn’t have enough money to buy everything her mom wanted.
What will Lisa do? What would you do?
She was trying to decide what to do. Then, she saw one of her neighbors walk up to the checkout line. Lisa gave a big sigh of relief.
Why is she relieved?

10. My Life
I started school at the age of four. I was big for my age, so the other kids didn’t notice that I was younger. Like a few other kids in the class, I also still talked a little baby talk. When the teacher began showing the class how to write the ABC’s, I always handed in my paper early. I didn’t want anyone to see that I was making words and sentences from the letters.
What inferences can we make about the author?
What information in the paragraph leads you to this conclusion?

11. What 2 things help you to make inferences when reading?
Wrap-Up
What 2 things help you to make inferences when reading?

12. A Nervous Situation
Frank picked up his pencil. He watched the teacher come down the aisle. He nervously chewed on the end of the pencil as the teacher laid a piece of paper on his desk. Frank took a deep breath, picked up his pencil, and got ready to get to work.
Where is Frank? How is he feeling?
How do you know?
What do you think the teacher is passing out?

13. Continued…A Nervous Situation
Thirty minutes later, Frank put down his pencil. He let out a sigh of relief. He smiled as he took his paper up to the teacher. Frank noticed that most of his classmates looked like they were in a good mood, too.
How does Frank feel now? His classmates?
Based on your “prior knowledge” (experience) how do the students feel about the test?