Becoming a Reading Detective Using the Inferring Strategy

Inferring is being a detective!  Use what you see plus what you know to figure out what the author is trying to tell you.

We use the strategy of inferring all day long, similar to “reading” people or “reading” a situation.   An example is if it has been raining outside and some cars have water on them and some cars do not, we infer that those without water have been parked in the garage. Inferring is often explained as, “reading between the lines” where the answers are not clearly stated. Inferring is like stopping and asking yourself “I wonder what the author meant?” Inferences are more open-ended and often don’t know if you are correct in your inference.  Students are using their prior knowledge to determine what is going to happen next in a piece of text.  When students use the strategy of inferring, they are making meaning of the text. They are adding pieces to a puzzle that are not in the text.  Inferring is simply like ripping out a page of a book and determining what happened on the missing page by thinking about what has happened so far and what they know about the characters and situations.

Some common sentence frames to use with your child, which will aid in their ability to infer, are: 

I think that...because...

Maybe it means...because...

My clues from the text are...

It could mean...because...

Within our classrooms, teachers commonly use what is called “Picture of the Day” to instruct students on the strategy of inferring. 

                                                                                                            Created by jenny Jones

If you go to the following blog, a more detailed description of “Picture of the Day” is provided for you.
http://helloliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/08/observing-describing-inferring-with.html