Infer

Infer: a beyond the text strategic action, readers think about what the writer means but has not stated.

Minilesson Resources

Inferring: from Wachusett Regional School District, lesson topics include Inferring Theme, Inferring Character Traits, Inferring Unknown Words and more.

What's in My Teacher's Bag?: from The Inspired Apple blog, a fun lesson to introduce the skill of inferring.

Trash Can Archeology: from One Extra Degree blog, free printable to use with Tanny McGregor's trash can inferencing lesson (found in the book Comprehension Connections).

Inferring Character Traits from Actions and Dialogue in the Story: from Scholastic.com, this lesson (#2 in the list) helps students zero in on the ways authors "show" rather than "tell" about their characters.

Inferring Character Traits Through Dialogue: from the blog Young Teacher Love, this lesson uses the book Verdi as a mentor text to help students gain insights into characters through their words, actions and feelings

Inferencing Lessons for 4th Grade: using stories, videos and real objects, this two week plan is great for introducing and practicing inferencing skills (from the Teaching Star Students blog).

Inferencing Minilessons : from tips-for-teachers.com, this page includes printable lesson plans, book lists, extension activities and much more!

Inference/Background Knowledge:  a wide range of resources and activities to support teaching inference from smekenseducation.com.

Inferring : from busyteacherscafe.com, this page include minilessons, activities and rubrics for teaching inferring.


Making Inferences:  from ohiorc.org, a large resource for lessons and ideas to teach and practice the comprehension skill of making inferences.

Anchor Charts

from The Well-Rounded Teacher on Pinterest.com

from Rebecca Cullums on Pinterest.com

from http://fabulous-fourth.blogspot.com

from http://literacycatherine.blogspot.com

from http://lifeingradeone.blogspot.com

Grade Level Expectations

(from Continuum of Literacy Learning, Fountas and Pinnell, 2012)

PreK

• talk about characters’ feelings
• talk about pictures, revealing interpretation of a problem or a character’s feeling

Kindergarten

• infer and talk about character’s feelings, motives, and attributes
• show evidence in print, pictures, or photographs to support inference

First Grade

• infer cause and effect
• demonstrate understanding of characters using text evidence
• infer characters’ feelings and motivations using their dialogue and actions
• infer and discuss understanding of character’s motivations and feelings
• infer the cause of problems or outcomes in fiction and nonfiction

Second Grade

• infer cause and effect
• infer the cause of problems or outcomes in fiction and nonfiction
• infer based on illustrations
• demonstrate understanding of characters using text evidence
• infer characters’ feelings and motivations using their dialogue
• see changes in characters over time and discuss reasons for the changes
• identify significant events and how they are related to the problem or solution
• infer the big ideas or message of a text
• support all thinking with evidence from the text

Third Grade

• infer cause and effect
• infer character feelings and motivations using character dialogue and actions
• follow multiple characters in different episodes and infer their feelings about each other
• demonstrate understanding of characters (traits, how they change, etc.) using evidence
• take unfamiliar perspectives to interpret character motive
• infer big ideas or themes of a text
• infer the cause of problems or outcomes in fiction and nonfiction
• infer based on illustrations

Fourth Grade

• infer cause and effect
• infer character feelings and motivations using character dialogue and actions
• follow multiple characters in different episodes and infer their feelings about each other
• infer based on illustrations
• demonstrate understanding of characters (traits, how they change, etc.) using evidence
• take unfamiliar perspectives to interpret character motive
• apply inferring to multiple characters and complex plots, with some subplots
• infer big ideas or themes of text (some texts with mature themes and issues)
• speculate alternative meanings that a text may have
• infer the meaning of symbols the author uses
• infer the cause of problems or outcomes in fiction and nonfiction

Fifth Grade