MAKING INFERENCES Objectives To make inferences by interpreting

MAKING INFERENCES Objectives: To make inferences by interpreting and analyzing text, including dialogue, and cite strong text evidence to support claims

Inference – a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning • Sometimes a writer will leave certain details out of a story • it is up to the reader to draw his/her own conclusion based on the information given.

How to Make an Inference • Use • Your knowledge of characters and plot details • common sense • Your own experience to fill in the missing details.

Make an Inference! • What does this image tell me?

Question… • What did I already know that helped me make that inference? • Did I use picture or written clues?

Help Me Make an Inference!

More Questions… • Did you use words or picture clues to help you make a guess about what that cartoon meant?

How Do Good Readers Make Inferences? They use: 1. Word/text clues 2. Picture clues 3. Define unknown words 4. Look for emotion (feelings) 5. Use what they already know 6. Look for explanations for events 7. ASK themselves questions!

Make Another Inference • Miss White has recess duty. Jacob finds a frog, picks it up, and runs over to show it to Miss White screams, jumps, and runs as fast as she can into the school. • What can you infer from this passage? • What are the “clues” in this passage?

What can you infer? ? “I could tell I was being stared at without even looking up. I knew that people were nudging each other, watching me out of the corners of their eyes. I thought I was used to those kinds of stares by now, but I guess I wasn’t. ” ·

“The author is implying something here about mood or feeling. **Use TEXT CLUES + Background Knowledge = Inference TC + BK = Inference In order to make an inference, I have to use both the text clues and my own background knowledge. I ask myself, ‘if I was in August’s shoes, sitting by myself in lunch, and having everyone stare at me, how would I feel? ’ I would probably feel very scared and self-conscious in that situation and I bet that is how August feels too, this is my background knowledge. So in order to understand what the author wants me to pick up on without telling us directly, I look at the text clues and I think about my own experience with people staring at me and make a prediction based off this connection. ”

What inferences can you make? “Just as we were sitting down in front of the DVD player, the phone rang. It was the nurse from August’s school calling to tell Mom that August had a stomachache and should be picked up. So much for the old movies and the mother-daughter bonding. ”

• The author is implying something here about how Via feels. • • So how are we going to figure out what the author wants us to think about how Via feels? Use the text clues (TC) and background knowledge (BK) to figure it out. She says, so much for the mother-daughter bonding. In order to use the clues to figure out what the author wants us to think, we have to think about our own experience. Have you ever been so excited about something and then it fell through? Has someone important to you ever let you down because something came up? When this happens, we feel sad and hurt. So because this is what our experience (BK) tells us about people who cancel plans, the author probably wants us to know that Via is feeling left out and unimportant to her Mom. ”

REVIEW: What is an inference? What are the two key items to think about when making your inferences?