Inferring is one of my favorite things to teach. As a kid, I was terrible at inferring. It wasn’t until I was a teacher that I fully understood what it was and how important it is to “read between the lines.”
My favorite way to teach inferring is to teach how to make inferences with mentor texts.
MAKING INFERENCES WITH MENTOR TEXTS
I first create an anchor chart about making inferences that includes sentence stems, so students know what inferring can sound like. Then I read tons of mentor texts and we infer together as we read them. Tip: I like to go over the mentor text beforehand and write sticky notes in it so that when I read it, I already have some things to say. This way I can make sure to provide a variety of inferring sentence stems as well.
Make sure to talk about the difference between inferring and making predictions. Predictions are mostly just guesses, where inferring uses specific information from the text and pictures to discover what the author says implicitly.
Here are some of my favorite books to use to teach inferring:
Chicken Sunday
Chicken Sunday, by Patricia Polacco is a wonderful story for inferring. Polacco is my favorite children’s book author, and I use her books for every type of topic. This is the story of Polacco as a child and some of her best friends. After noticing how her friends’ mom looks at a hat in a store, the three children decide to raise money and buy it for her, though it ends up getting donated by the store owner.
There area lot of feelings in this book that aren’t explicitly written, so I use sentences in the book for students to make inferences about how the characters are feeling. It also has wonderful character traits that can be inferred as well.
Mr. Lincoln’s Way
Another book by Polacco, Mr. Lincoln’s Way is about a troubled boy and how Mr. Lincoln, the principal, gets through to him and helps him become less angry at the world.
This book deals with racism and emotions, and there is a lot of opportunity to make inferences about these two things, as well as other character traits.
Smoky Night
Smoky Night, by Eve Bunting, is a short, but powerful book. When a riot breaks out, and an apartment building catches on fire, the tenants hurry to a shelter. Here, they interact with each other in new ways as they help each other out.
This book deals with multiple races living in a similar area, but largely not interacting with each other. What I like about it is the pictures are more abstract, and make each person’s race more open to interpretation, as well as relying on the story to help. It is written in a way that is perfect for inferring, because the whole riot, fire, and interaction between the people are hard for students to understand unless you go through it together and help them make inferences throughout. It makes for a great conversation.
MAKING INFERENCES WITH MENTOR TEXTS RESOURCES
My love for Patricia Polacco and inferring is so strong I wrote a whole unit about inferring with her books. The unit covers Thunder Cake, Mr. Lincoln’s Way, Chicken Sunday, Luba and the Wren, and The Junkyard Wonders.
Inferring topics include the basics about making inferences, inferring character traits, using textual evidence, asking questions that involve inferring, inferring the meaning of words, inferring theme, and more.
To take a look, click on the picture below.
