Ep 64: Helping Your Students Make Inferences When They Read: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Hey, teachers, if you have a classroom and a commute, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Rachael, and I want to ride along with you each week on your ride into school. This podcast is the place for busy teachers who want actionable tips, simple strategies, and just want to enjoy their job more. Let's go.
Hey there! Welcome back to another episode of The Classroom Commute Podcast, I'm Rachael your host. I'm glad that you are spending a little bit of your day with me today. The past few months on the podcast, we have been working our way through the different reading comprehension strategies that we teach to our students in the classroom. Today, we are actually on our sixth reading strategy, which is going to be inferring. If you've missed any of the other episodes where we dive deep into each reading strategy, things that you need to know before you teach it, how to teach it, and how to have your students practice it, make sure you check out all the other ones. I've been going in an order that I think makes the most sense. Right when I started this series, back in the fall, I did a little introductory episode all about how to approach reading comprehension strategy instruction as a whole. I talked a lot about how I do feel it's important that you give all these strategies up front to your students so you cover them all, you touch on them just a bit. As you're going through your school year, you're constantly modeling all of them. Even if it's not one that you are particularly focused on and isolating, you still model all of the strategies so that students can see that you don't just use one strategy in isolation, but rather you pull from the strategies that will best work for the texts that you're reading to make the most sense of it. But then we are diving deep into each strategy separately because you do need that isolated instruction as well, specifically as you start noticing students maybe not using a strategy correctly or neglecting it altogether. That's why I have these individual episodes about each specific strategy so that you can not only be modeling all the strategies together, but that you are also given the tools and the resources that you need to teach the strategies in isolation, whether that be through a whole class mini lesson, in a small group setting, or even in individual reading conferences. I'm setting the stage in case you missed any of that from previous episodes. Of course, I will link to all of the episodes that we have talked about regarding the reading comprehension strategies, so you can go back and review them if you've already listened to them, or you can go back and listen to them for the first time and catch up.
As I mentioned, today's reading strategy for this month is teaching students to infer while reading. Teaching students to infer is so critical because it helps them take the meaning to the next level, it helps them take it deeper. When students infer, they find clues in the text and they use what they already know from their personal experience or past knowledge of a topic to fully comprehend and understand what the text is about. Good inferences are going to be backed up by supporting details from both the text and personal knowledge. I always like to begin these episodes by giving you some background information that you need to know about the strategy before you dive into teaching it to your students. Let's go ahead and do that now.
It's important to help students distinguish between inferring, from stating the obvious. Inferring is one of those abstract concepts that students don't automatically fully understand right off the bat. We have to help them see the difference between inferring and stating the obvious. Here's a simple example that you could use with your students. You could show students a picture of a baby and you could ask, "What do you notice about this picture?" They could say, "Well, the baby's crying." That would be stating the obvious. That's something that anybody can see regardless of any other information that they may have in their minds or that they are reading about. However, an inference would be something like that 'baby's tired or that baby is hungry'. They're using their background knowledge of why babies cry in the first place and combining it with the details from the picture to make a plausible inference. We're going to talk more about helping students to come up with those logical, plausible inferences a little bit later on. But that's the first thing to keep in mind when thinking about teaching inferring to your students to make sure that they know the difference between stating the obvious and inferring.
It's also important to help students understand the difference between inferences and predictions. Although they are related, they are not the same. This is a common mistake with students. When students predict, they guess what will happen next based on what they already know from the text and their background knowledge. When students infer, they make a guess about what is currently happening. Back to the example of the baby, the baby is currently crying. They're inferring why the baby's crying right now. They're not trying to figure out if the baby is going to cry later on down the line because they haven't eaten in two or three hours. A sensible inference would be why the baby's crying. Well, she's hungry or tired. A sensible prediction in that case might be, 'Well, the mom and dad of the baby will come pick up the baby and soothe him'. There is a concrete example that you can give your students as well to show them the difference between inferring and predicting.
Lastly, although inferences are subjective, it is possible for students to draw incorrect inferences. For example, if a student looks at the picture of the crying baby and says the baby's probably upset because his brother just made fun of him. Well, that's likely not the case because a baby is too young to understand that he or she is being made fun of. I love this illustration of the baby because it's something that you can use to illustrate the difference between inferring and stating the obvious, as well as inferring and predictions and making sure that our inferences are logical and make sense. That's some information that I think is helpful to know going into teaching this reading strategy with your students.
Now, let's break it down in how you would present this strategy to your students for the first time when you introduce it. There are several activities that I love to use, in the past, that really help students to make inferences. First, we want our students to understand that they're already making inferences in their everyday life. Any time they come up with a conclusion about a specific situation, they're inferring. You can start with students sharing maybe some examples of when they make inferences without necessarily even knowing it. The first real activity that I do with my students is I show them inferring, using pictures. I just simply go on Google and find some really interesting pictures that I know will prompt inferring.
Here's a couple of examples. I have a few in front of me right now, so I'll try to explain them to you and explain how they work well for this particular activity. I have a picture of a boy. He's sitting at the dinner table, in front of him is a plate full of veggies. We've got carrots, broccoli, and zucchini all sitting on the plate. He's got his elbows up on the table with his head in his hands. He's got a little bit of a grumpy face. A possible inference for this is that the boy does not like vegetables, he's not excited about his dinner, and he is not pleased that maybe his mom or dad is making him eat these vegetables. The evidence that you want to encourage your students to provide is that, Number 1, he's got the veggies in front of him and he's got a little bit of a scowl on his face. The student might use their own feelings about veggies to understand what he might be thinking.
Another picture might look like this. There's a picture of a mom and a daughter at the grocery store. The mom has a cart full of groceries and the daughter is standing next to her holding a bag of chips. The mom's has this look on her face like she's not about to let her put any more snacks or junk food in the cart. The possible inference would be that the girl wants to buy the chips, but the mom's not going to allow it. The evidence is that the girl is looking hopeful. She's kind of got this, Please, Mom', look on her face and the mom's got a little bit of a scowl on her face or almost as if she's saying no and her hand is up, pushing the chips away. Students are going to draw on the pictures for that evidence and they're also going to use their own experience. I'm sure every kid has been at the grocery store with their parents and has wanted to buy some sort of junk food and their parents have said no. They have that prior knowledge to help them make their inferences.
I do maybe three to five pictures like this and let students have a discussion about it, share what their inferences are, and, of course, drawing on the details of the picture to support their inferences. Another fun way that you can introduce inferring is to create mystery bags. To do this, you collect several items that students can use as clues to guess where you might be going or what you might be doing. For example, one bag might have a pair of sunglasses, a sunscreen and a beach towel. Of course, you would hope that students would guess that you might be going to the beach. They're going to use the evidence of, 'Well, you have sunglasses, sunscreen, and a beach towel. When I go to the beach, those are the things that I bring'. There's the evidence and there's the prior knowledge. Another bag might include ingredients and utensils to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Again, they have probably all made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before. Therefore, they know what's needed to make that. They've got the evidence of those items in your bag. You can extend this activity by having students create their own mystery bags. Give them a day or two to put together their own mystery bags and then invite them to share their bags with the class or with a partner, their partners can make inferences. Similar to the mystery bag, you can play a game where students observe different shoes and guess which type of person would wear that shoe. I'm sure you've seen this example and it just is a really solid way to introduce inferring to your students. If you have a high heel shoe, that might be worn by a woman who's possibly going to a fancy restaurant or a soccer cleat would be worn by a soccer player, winter boots would be worn by somebody who's planning to walk in the snow. Those are all really concrete ways to help students practice the inferring skill. Again, bring it back to the fact that they're probably already doing these types of inferences in their own daily life.
Now, once the students understand the concept of making inferences based on clues, now we're going to help them translate that skill into their reading. Before jumping into longer stories, however, have students practice their inferring skills using short sentences. Here are some examples of some sentences that you can use to draw some inferences. Here's the first one. 'My family and I have everything we need: tickets, popcorn and candy'. Hopefully the students will infer that you're going to a movie. Here's another one. 'Sam sat with a puzzled look on his face and then raised his hand in class'. The inference, Sam has a question or is confused about something. Here's a third one. 'We all grabbed our raincoats and umbrella'. What's the inference? It's raining outside. We take the simple activities from the pictures and the mystery bags, and now we're putting it into a sentence that they're reading. We're just building a little bit at a time to help students start to grasp this concept.
The next step is to ask students to apply this reading strategy to longer stories. I think picture books, like in the other strategies that we've talked about, are a great tool to model the strategy of inferring. You might even start with wordless picture books as they are perfect for practicing inferring. I will give you a link to some of the books that I think work great for inferring. I will link to some of those books in the show notes so make sure you check that out. You're going to teach students that good inferences use specific details from the texts and the pictures, as well as their background knowledge.
Now, there's one strategy suggested by author and educator Kylene Beer's that can be used for modeling inferring. It's called, "It Says - I Say - And So I Infer". It's a little bit of a thought flow to help guide students through the process of inferring. Let's show how this works through a story that I'm sure you're all familiar with, Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears. Here's what your "It Says - I Say - And So I Infer" thought flow might look like. It Says that Goldilocks sits in the baby chair even though she's not a baby. I Say that I know baby chairs are small and not meant for big kids because they weigh too much. And So I Infer that since Goldilocks is too heavy for the baby chair, it breaks. The author doesn't tell you "Well, the chair breaks because she's too big and sits in it". The student has to make that inference along the way. I love this thought flow because it helps students to not only make the inference, but it forces them to "It Says", what does it say in the text? Then also draws upon their own experiences in the "I Say" portion and then they can make their inferences. This thought flow works really nice if you put it into a three column chart that you might put on a smart board or an anchor chart in your classroom. The first column is "It Says", the second column is "I Say", and the third column is "And So I Infer". Then I would encourage you to use this chart as you model it and then allow students to use the same chart when they go to do it on their own in their individual reading books.
I've already mentioned that it helps to choose some really great books, some anchor texts that are going to support this strategy. I will link to some of those in the show notes but here's a few to get your mind thinking. The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Allsburg. If you haven't read that book, it's a book about these characters on a boat and there's this really interesting looking stone with a lot of mystery surrounding it that would beg for some inferences. The Memory String by Eve Bunting, another great one. This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen. The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson. Those are four books that are a good jumping point for modeling inferences and I will link to those in the show notes.
Now, the next step. After you've done lots of modeling, it's time to have your students practice. You want to send them off with some tools that will remind them of what they're supposed to be doing. I've mentioned this in the other episodes on reading comprehension strategies, so I'll mention it again. Create simple visuals to remind students to infer so things like a poster that you can place somewhere in your classroom or a bookmark that has some information about inferring. Then they have that right there in front of them when they're reading and they're seeing what they should be doing. I have a free bookmark for you, just like the other reading strategies over in our Members Resource Library so make sure you check that out. I will link to it in the show notes at classroomnook.com/podcast/64. It's a free bookmark, it has the information that students need to look for what the text tells me and what they already know about the topic in order to make their inference.
Although we want students to apply this strategy and all the other reading strategies to any book that they're reading, at the beginning when you're first introducing it, it does help to have a little bit of a controlled environment when it comes to having them practice the strategy for the first time. That's where my reading comprehension strategy LINKtivities comes into play. They are very specific to the individual reading strategy and it gives students not only an animated video for them to watch, to review that strategy, but also gives them a little bit of a virtual reading buddy to walk through the strategy with, as well as three practice reading passages to try it on their own. These passages have been tailored specifically for the inferring strategy so it helps give them that scaffolding that they need before they jump into their own individual reading books to practice the strategy there. I will link to the inferring LINKtivity over in the show notes. Of course I have them for all the reading strategies as well. You can get them individually or you can purchase the bundle and save a little bit on the costs there. This is a really great way to have students practice it. These LINKtivities work great in individual centers, they also work great on their own, or if you're having students all work on it at the same time. They're digital so they can be done at home as well if you are in a virtual setting or if you just want to have that extra practice for students at home.
We have talked about introducing the reading strategy. We've talked about modeling it, and then we talked about practicing it. The final piece of the puzzle is assessing how your students are doing on their own with the inferring strategy assessment, whether it be formal or informal, drives instruction. I cannot say that enough. I say all the time that we should be using our assessments to drive what we do next with our students. For more informal assessments, you can take notes about students using the inferring reading strategy during reading conferences or in your small groups. Consider the following things that you're going to look for when you're watching these students practice this strategy in real time. Are students using text evidence to support their inferences? Are students using their background knowledge and or their personal experiences to support their inferences? Remember, we want both. We want both the text evidence and we want the personal experience. That's key. Are there inferences logical? Do they make sense? Do they make sense to what's going on in the story or are they just kind of grabbing at straws? And finally, can students clearly justify their inferences? That's going to be across the board for anything that we want students to do. We want them to be able to justify their thinking. That comes back to the text evidence and the background knowledge. If you already have my making inferences LINKtivity, you also have the inferring rubric that goes along with it. It includes all of those things to be checking for, the text evidence, the background knowledge, and whether it's logical or not. It rates the students on a 1-4 scale, 4 being a little bit above what's expected at their grade level, 3 being right on grade level, 2 and 1 being below so that you can see what necessary supports you need to put in place to help get them to that 3 or 4. If you already have the LINKtivity, you already have access to that. If you want access to it, you can check out the link in my show notes for this specific LINKtivity.
All right. We have covered a lot of ground today when it comes to making inferences. I hope that this has been helpful to see how you break it down for your students and make it manageable for them to understand, going from the concrete to the more abstract. That is all I have for you today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and a good start to your week. I will be back again next week with another episode. Bye for now.
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