Inferring: Comprehension Strategy
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Into the Book (for parents, teachers and kids)
Inferring is the thinking children do every day when they take information from the world around them, use their previous experience and make a wise decision. Children know when to go to dad to ask for something, after having a look at mom who is preoccupied with work. The success rate might be better. That is a wise inference!
In reading, a child makes inferences by reading the text and applying background knowledge, and making a comment on the character's motivation, or possible outcome if a character acts in a certain way. A child infers meanings of words based on the context of the sentence and can guess the meaning of the word without looking up the definition.
Our teachers are working together in professional development meetings, to look at our students' work, read and discuss the latest research and build lessons around specific strategies that will help students improve critical thinking in all areas of the curriculum. See some of our workshop planners below.
Our students are learning to use a formula to help develop an inference:
A dose of background knowledge + a pinch of evidence from the text = an solid inference.
A variety of Graphic Organizers helps students to organize their answers with proof, ideas from their understanding to show insight.
Not everyone may agree with your inference, so students are taught to oppose an idea politely.
"I understand what you said, but I think . . ."
"Even though the character did . . . I feel that . . . because the text says . ..
How to help your child develop his or her inferring skills:
When watching a movie, talk about what a character says or does and infer characteristics of this character. e.g. The third little pig took longer to build his house. That shows that he is patient and is willing to work hard to build a better or safer house.
This advertisement is showing me that if you buy this toy or this perfume, everyone will want to be your friend. I think that is a trick. People want to be your friend because you are a kind and interesting person.
When I hear that kind of music in the movie, I know something bad is about to happen. The director is setting me up for a scare!
It is getting close to dinner; everyone is hungry. This isn't the best time to ask Dad for some help with my lego project.
In math: Why would it be useful to measure the length and width of a room by counting how many footsteps you need to get to one wall to the next.
A certain shape makes you think of a rectangle, but it is not a rectangle. What could it be?
You divide 2 numbers and the answer is 2.5. What two numbers might you have divided? What word problem might you have been solving?
