Inference Study Designed To Hook Your Kids On Reading

Inference is one of those skills that underlies everything a great reader does. To make predictions, to analyze, to understand a text at all, students must be able to infer. Yet in my visits to other classrooms, I often see inference treated as a skill that can be taught with a worksheet featuring a few short, low-complexity paragraphs.

So how can inference, this deep skill that matters so much to great readers, be taught in a classroom where half the students believe that they aren't readers and where others are already proficient readers? Use authentic passages from books! After all, what's the point of inferring if we aren't going to use it for reading real texts?

Here are the fun, engaging ways I get my students involved with the act of inferring:

1. Introduce the skill. My notes for this are simple (my notes generally are, because skills like English are more about practicing than about memorizing). My students write that an inference is "What is in the text + what you know." It's that simple.

We then do the practice questions below together (I model the first one with them, then allow them to work with partners or small groups to complete the second one). We create a chart to show what evidence we used to come to our inferences, and how that evidence connects to the knowledge we have already encountered in our lives.

2. Give students short excerpts from texts to get them hooked. I do this in the form of task cards, because I like my students moving as much as possible. 

The multiple choice options provide a scaffold, as does the opportunity to work with a partner at this point. Students who seem to be struggling as I walk around monitoring are given guidance for how to think logically through creating an inference.

Bonus: Before we start, I tell students to write down the titles of any books they discover during this activity that sound interesting for them to read. We add these to our reading plans so that students always know what book to read next!

3. Provide students longer excerpts to practice in a more authentic situation. The scaffold at this point is the specific line chosen for them to make a deep inference from. I expect students to read the entire excerpt provided before completing the associated task. This is a practice that good readers use; one line of text may not tell a reader much, but the same line taken in the context of an entire page or chapter, can be fraught with meaning.

You may want to make this a center, to save on printing, or make only a few copies of each excerpt that students will share. This is a great place to checkpoint who is mastering this skill and who is struggling.

4. Allow students to tell you their own inferences from their choice reading books. This is about as authentic as it gets: Students choose their own book, choose their own significant lines from their books, and provide inferences that are real and meaningful to them.

5. Get students writing so that others can make inferences from their creations. I always do this after or concurrently with our "Show, Don't Tell" lessons. "Show, Don't Tell" is the how; inferring is the result. When students write so that readers can see and experience what their characters are experiencing, then they are writing so that their readers can have a richer experience, full of visualization and inferences.

Inferences will form the basis for how students understand literature all year long, so don't feel as though these activities need to happen in one jam-packed week; rather, distribute them as you feel most comfortable, even if that means you only do one "inference day" every week. Let your students' desire to know and understand, to find meaning, and to discover the hidden clues left by authors, guide and motivate them throughout these lessons, and enjoy the success of realizing that your students are reading more deeply than ever before.

Happy learning!

Cheers,