Inferences from reading

YOu’re right — most people figure it out on their own, or get asked the right questions early enough and just don’t remember the light bulb going on.

I learned to teach inferences by starting with oral language and visual examples (my students often were very weak in one and not the other so that determined which I emphasized). SO, I’ve got a Garfield comic strip that’s got what’s-his-name coming through the door with his head drooped down, and Garfield asks “how did the date go?” That gets the whole idea of an “inference” across.

I work on the analytical skill of looking at a sentence or paragraph and asking what else it could mean, thinking of a “why” question. or going the other way, guessing at an inference (like “this was written to teach people not to eat rocks”) and finding support, or not, to back it up. That works pretty well on those multiple guess standardized tests.

There are some examples for teaching comprehension and inferences on my website at www.resourceroom.net

Thanks for the suggestions. I really like your “Big idea” on your website. I think that is about where my son is. He has CAPD and is weak at abstract reasoning. I think this is what is going on here. He can follow the story line fine.

Beth

One of the best ways to teach inference is to get a picture book or several picture books that require inference.Dandelion by Eve Bunting, fables by Arnold Loebel, See the Ocean by Estelle Condra, The Table Where Rich People Sit by Byrd Baylor, Teammates by Peter Goldenbock are some examples. Read them together and stop after every page and discuss the story. Ask questions that require inference. Then, find the proof in the text that helped you figure it out.
Nan

Nan,

Thanks for the good ideas here and above!

Beth

Beth,

The books that are recommended to be used with V/V, Specific Skill Series, are excellent for getting at the different comprehension skills. There is one for getting the main idea, getting the facts, detecting the sequence, drawing conclusions, making inferences, etc.

http://www.sra4kids.com/supplemental/supplemental_detail.phtml?id=1

Janis

I do remember finding these questions difficult and annoying when I was in elementary school. How am I supposed to know what the author intended; am I supposed to be a mind reader? My personal difficulty with reading facial expressions (something that appears like NLD of sorts) certainly didn’t help. Neither did my cultural background, which is Scottish descent and very reserved about emotions. However in a way this worked for me as many of my classmates also complained bitterly about being expected to infer or express emotions, which is felt to be an invasion of privacy in our background, so I was not alone.

There was no specific planned progression but when the class as a whole did badly on a particular exercise I remember teachers going over what we should have seen in the reading and pointing out the clues and key words and phrases. After a while the light did flash on — not that I got anything much more out of reading at the time, but I’m very test wise and added another skill to the arsenal of testing activities. Very much later, in my twenties, the *other* light flashed on and I started getting more out of novels that concentrated on personalities and emotions.

One thing I’ve found helpful in general — and exactly the same thing in math problems, by the way — is to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. When asked what the author’s intentions are, OK, you wrote this piece — what are you trying to tell me? When asked why the character acted as he did, OK, you’ve just heard a story of a fantastic treasure hidden on an island, so what do you do? In math, OK you own a store and are selling mixed nuts; how many cashews and how many peanuts can you afford to sell me at $3.00 a pound? Many students try to answer these questions completely from the outside, and get nowhere; when you put yourself in the middle of the problem, you get involved and can see why things work the way they do.

Victoria,

Trying to put yourself in others’ shoes is an interesting analytical device. I think it might be a good way to make what seems a bit silly I suspect to my son more concrete. He is a very concrete thinker. I am not. Sometimes that is good but sometimes I have a hard time making concrete what is almost intuitive for me.

Beth

Janis,

This look good. Thanks.

Beth