Inferential Reading Strategy





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ELA Web Pages:

Use this Strategy:

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

Targeted Reading Skills:

· Draw upon prior knowledge

· Draw conclusions and make inferences

· Recognize the effects of one’s own point of view in formulating interpretations of texts

What is it?

In her book, When Kids Can’t Read, Kylene Beers laments, “I once thought that if my students could make an inference, any inference, then my teaching woes (and their comprehension worries) would end. . . The problem with comprehension, it appeared, was that kids couldn’t make an inference.” She then remarks, “It took years for me to get a handle on that one.”

What we need to keep in mind is that our students certainly do know how to make inferences; they continually make inferences throughout the school day. They make inferences based on their peers’ physical appearance, actions, speech, or based on their teachers’ facial expressions, body language and room arrangement. What we need to help them do is transfer those skills and strategies to their interactions with text. Ah, there’s the rub.

What does it look like?

And so, how do we teach this seemingly elusive skill? In her book, Beers provides two excellent resources that will help both students and teachers. She provides a list of thirteen types of inferences that skilled readers make, an excellent list to provide for your students to keep in their notebooks. Her second list is a series of comments teachers can make to help students make certain types of inferences.

Types of Inferences Skilled Readers Use

Skilled readers . . .

Recognize the antecedents for pronouns
Figure out the meaning of unknown words from context clues
Figure out the grammatical function of an unknown words
Understand intonation of characters’ words
Identify characters’ beliefs, personalities, and motivations
Understand characters’ relationships to one another
Provide details about the setting
Provide explanations for events or ideas that are presented in the text
Offer details for events or their own explanations of the events
Understand the author’s view of the world
Recognize the author’s biases
Relate what is happening in the text to their own knowledge of the world
Offer conclusions from facts presented in the text

Comments Teachers Can Make to Help Students Make Certain Types of 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 this (insert topic) and see how that fits with what’s in the text.”
“After you read this section, see if you can explain why the character acted this way.”
“Look at how the character said (insert a specific quote). How would you have interpreted what that character said if he had said (change how it was said or stress different words)?”
“Look for words that you don’t know and see if any of the other words in the sentence or surrounding sentences can give you an idea for what those unknown words mean.”
“As you read this section, look for clues that would tell you how the author might feel about (insert a topic or character’s name).”

How could I use, adapt or differentiate it?

When first introducing “inferential reading” to students, use an everyday occurrence where they automatically draw inferences; design an activity that uses an inductive approach to identify the types of inferences that they constantly use in their daily activities.

When students already understand what it means to “make inferences” in a real life context, then we need to provide a short piece of text with which they are working and have them annotate as many inferences as they can. The first time you may want to do this as a whole class using a transparency. After identification, they need to examine the process by which they arrived at their inferences and create a working list of types of inferences that skilled readers use. Post this list in your classroom for easy reference.

Try to read short passages aloud on a regular basis, and use a “think aloud approach” to focus only on the inferences that you are making as you read. Have students practice this aloud as well, either in partners or small groups. As they do this, they can reference their list of types of inferences and add to it.

A constant refrain in English classes is, “How do you know the writer meant this?” Beers suggests that we “remind students that authors don’t expect readers to create inferences out of nothing. Authors provide information (that’s the external text); readers use that information in a variety of ways to create their internal text. When authors aren’t providing literal information, then they are implying something. Tell students that readers infer and authors imply.” This sounds like a great statement to put on a poster; although I might reverse it to read: “Authors imply; therefore, readers have to infer.”

A suggestion Beers makes is to, “cut cartoons from the newspaper and put them onto a transparency. Read them aloud, and then think aloud the inferences that you make that allow you to perceive the cartoon as funny. Then let kids cut out their favorites and bring them in. Eventually, I give extra credit for kids who bring in cartoons they can’t figure out. These allow us to discuss how inferencing doesn’t work if you don’t have the right background knowledge. Most often, students bring in political cartoons for this.”

Another great idea she suggests is to use bumper stickers or signs and have students write the internal text that comes from the external text.