Inferring

Inferences are an important elaboration strategy. Inferences help to fill in the holes in a story. There are two kinds of inferences: schema-based and text-based.
 * Define: **

Schema-based inferences depend on prior knowledge and allow the reader to elaborate on the text by adding information that has been implied by the author. A reader can use his or her schema for the position of the sun to infer the approximate time and direction.
 * Example: ** “They rode into the sun.”

Text-based inferences require putting together two or more pieces of information from the text.
 * Example: ** Reading that peanuts have more food energy than sugar and that a pound of peanut butter has more protein than thirty-two eggs but more fan than ice cream, the reader might infer that peanuts are nutritious but fattening.


 * __Explanation of how making inferences helps comprehension: __**

Reading comprehension can be affected by prior knowledge about the subject. Readers who possess rich prior knowledge about the topic of a reading often understand the reading better than classmates with low prior knowledge. It is critical that readers relate their world knowledge to the content of a text in order to make sense of what they are reading. Students use prior knowledge to make inferences about the text that they are reading. Inferences are evidence-based guesses. They are the conclusions a reader draws about the unsaid in a passage based on what is actually said by the author. Inferences drawn while reading are much like inferences drawn in everyday life. Students make inferences throughout their school day based on their peers’ physical appearance, actions, speech, or based on their teachers’ facial expressions, and body language. Students need to be taught how to transfer these skills and strategies to their interactions with text.

//The teacher should // emphasize the need to go beyond facts and details in order to make inferences. In a sense, the author provides the story’s framework, and the reader must construct the full meaning by filling in the missing parts. Model of making inferences: > > > > __Chalk__ - by Bill Thomson > > __Deep in the Forest__ - by Briton Turkle > > __Looking Down__ - by Steve Jenkins > > __I See Myself__ - by Vicki Cobb >  > __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Pop! A Book About Bubbles __ > > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, illustrated with photos by Margaret Miller > > <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;"> > __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? __ > > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> by Steve Jenkins > <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;"> > __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If America Were a Village: A Book about the People of the United States __ > > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> by David J Smith, illustrated by Shelagh Armstron > > __The Little Plant Doctor: A Story about George Washington Carver__ > > by Jean Marzollo, illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">How it works: //**
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Teacher reads story and analyzes it for two or three important ideas
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">For each idea, the teacher creates a previous experience question to elicit from students’ prior experience
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">For each previous experience question, one prediction is created
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The students read the selection to check their predictions
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Students discuss predictions. Inferential questions, especially those related to the key ideas, are discussed __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Book list: __
 * 1) [[image:http://www.readingrockets.org/themes/rr_new/images/covers/0156707683.jpg]]
 * 2) __Pancakes for Breakfast__ - by Tomie dePaola
 * 3) [[image:http://www.readingrockets.org/themes/rr_new/images/covers/081185924X.jpg]]
 * 4) __Wave__ - by Susy Le
 * 1) __ Links: __
 * 1) __ Links: __