K-8 Tools to Help Students Infer

TOOL: Teacher example found in media

SOURCE: Janine Schaub, Literacy Coach NW5 and NW6

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: Inference

APPROPRIATE GRADES: This one might be for an intermediate class but you could pick an appropriate example for any grade

When you are reading for yourself, look for examples of inferring that you can share with your students. Sharing a brief example might only take five minutes but it shows students your thinking and gives them access to ordinary samples. Here is an example found in a newspaper film review of  “Dream House”(ellipses were included in the original):

“Dream House is about a man who moves his family to the perfect house in a small idyllic town only to realize that the house is…haunted…by the former occupants…who were…murdered…there.”

Share this with students, tell them what an ellipsis is (…) and explain that the reviewer’s style helps us infer that this film won’t be providing us with any surprises. The reviewer never explicitly said so, but we as readers can infer from his writing style that the plot will be predictable.

TOOL: Coding the Text

SOURCE: Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4-6, Volume One, Foundations of Literacy Instruction for the Junior Learner, 2006

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring and connecting

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 4-8

Coding, or marking the text helps readers to engage with the text while reading. Students can work individually or in pairs. The teacher and students come up with the code that will be used during reading. Here are some examples:

• Question mark for ideas that contradictory to what they already know
• Star marking a big idea
• Cloud bubble around something in the text that is implied with an arrow to the side of the page where the reader explains his/her inference
• T-T (text to text connections)
• T-S (text to self connections)
• T-W (text to world connections)
• Light bulb when confusion is clarified

TOOL: Inside Out

SOURCE: unknown

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 4-8

On Chart paper teacher draws a rough outline of a character in the story. Around the outside of the character, the teacher scribes as the class comes up with important facts that the character said or did. One the inside of the character the teacher jots down inferences that can be made about the character by “reading between the lines”.

TOOL: Inference and Connecting Circles (based on literature circles)

SOURCE: Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4-6, Volume One, Foundations of Literacy Instruction for the Junior Learner, 2006

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring and connecting

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 4-8

Summarizer: provides a clear, well-organized summary of the text with a focus on key details

Connector: describes how the text connects to his or her own life, other texts and to the world with specific reference to how the connections further the “big idea” or main idea in the text

Detective: picks out examples in the texts where inferences can be made using clues found in the text and his or her own background knowledge to explain why the inference is relevant to the “big idea” or main idea in the text

Illustrator: creates an illustration that might explain an unanswered question in the text

Authors Imply and Readers Infer

1. Any text is incomplete without the reader.

In pairs, spend a minute or two discussing what this statement means.

*have the a few pairs share their ideas with the whole class

2.  Hand out one of the following short texts to small groups of students and have them answer the three questions:

a)  “I couldn’t see a thing with that snow all over the windshield!” That’s what the driver told the cyclist when he got out of the car.

What do you think has happened?

Why might it have happened?

What might be the conclusion of this story?

b) “A person can only listen to so much bagpipe music if you can call it that!” That’s what the woman told the police when she handed them the knife.

What might be the relationship between the woman and the bagpipe player?

What do you think has happened?

Why might it have happened?

What might be the conclusion of this story?

TOOL: Inferring from Political Cartoons

SOURCE: Janine Schaub

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: intermediate

Choose a current political cartoon that will be relevant to your students but will be a little bit above their comprehension level. You are going to guide them step by step so that they understand the cartoon’s implied message

Show the cartoon to the students on an overhead projector or smart board.

1. Tell them briefly what you already know about the cartoon’s topic. This is a great opportunity to model a text to world connection. (Don’t go on and on…keep this part to a couple of minutes at the most.
2. Explain what is happening in the cartoon. Start with the explicit and move towards the implicit. Tell the students what you are seeing and then what you take to be the cartoonist’s meaning.
3. Political cartoons are often difficult for students to decode because they may lack the context and background knowledge to understand the humor. Tell your students why you find the cartoon funny or amusing. “Getting” a joke means that a student is gaining access to the adult world and your guidance into that world is an implicit compliment. You think that your students are sophisticated enough to appreciate the implied message.
4. NEXT: Choose a cartoon that is not quite as challenging as the one that you deconstructed for your students. In pairs, have the students make a t-chart with what they observe in the cartoon on one side and what they infer on the other side.  Such as:

What I observe…	What I infer…

5. Individually students then answer the following question:

What can you infer by examining the cartoon? Use your background knowledge and clues from the cartoon in your answer.

 Or

What do you think the cartoonist was trying to say? Use your background knowledge and clues from the cartoon in your answer.

6.  Ask students to bring in political cartoons to share with the class. Get students to deconstruct the cartoon in a small or large group.

TOOL: Making Inferences from Photographs

SOURCE: Janine Schaub

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: intermediate

1. Study the photograph for a full minute (longer if required). Divide the photograph into four quadrants and see if you can identify anything new you missed in those sections.
2. Use the chart to jot down your observations.

People	Objects	Activities

Based on the information from the above chart, make three conclusions in the chart below. Make sure at least one of your conclusions is an inference. (Use your background knowledge, clues, and form an educated guess.)

Explicit Conclusion (based on verifiable facts that can be readily seen)	Evidence	Implicit Conclusion (based on clues and/or your background knowledge)	Evidence
Sidewalks are dirty	litter in photo on sidewalk	People throw gum on sidewalks	The black splotches are pieces of squished and dirty gum. I’ve noticed this often outside buildings and at subway stations.

Making Inferences from Photographs

A Reader’s Job: Using what you know or can figure out to help you understand an author

The reader’s job is a tough one. When you read just about anything you quickly discover that you are not provided with a full picture. You will be left with many unanswered questions when you’ve finished reading a book or article. Authors intentionally or unintentionally leave out details. They often give you only part of a story and frequently set the reader up with false information. Sometimes authors attempt to persuade you with exaggeration or by appealing to your feelings. As a reader, it’s up to you to figure out what on earth the author is really saying and make sense of it.

Sometimes you will know something about the author’s topic and this really helps you understand. Discussing a text with a friend who has read the same thing also helps. Mostly, however, you are on your own and must use your own experiences and your detective skills to infer what the author is implying.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself that might help you infer:

What do I already know about this topic?

What is my experience in a similar situation?

Why might the author have included these particular facts?

Which words or ideas are repeated or emphasized?

 

TOOL: Thought Bubbles (Graphic Organizer)

SOURCE: M.Tarasoff, Reading Instruction the Makes Sense, 1993

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 2-8

Title: Author:	Student Name:	Date:
(what the character said) (what the character was thinking)	(what the character said) (what the character was thinking)	(what the character said) (what the character was thinking)
Illustrate or describe the event here:	Illustrate or describe the event here:	Illustrate or describe the event here:

 

TOOL: Total Physical Response

SOURCE: Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4-6, Volume One, Foundations of Literacy Instruction for the Junior Learner, 2006 and Cathy Pollock, Literacy Coach TDSB

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: all

Teacher says a single action word or phrase and then physically demonstrates the action.

TC + BK= I

(Text clue) + (background knowledge) = (inference)

Teacher points to the text clue in the book.

Teacher touches head with both hands and says, “Background knowledge”.

Teacher gestures with hand to suggest words coming out of his/her mouth and says “Spit out an inference.”

 

TOOL: Modelling inferring with Behavioural Clues

SOURCE: Janine Schaub, Literacy Coach NW5 and NW6

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: Kindergarten

Teacher shivers and acts out putting on a sweater.

Teacher: How am I feeling?

Student: You are cold.

Teacher: Good. What clues did you use to tell you that I was cold?

Student: You shivered and put on a sweater. People do that when they are cold.

Teacher: You inferred that I was cold because you saw that I was shivering and put on a sweater and you also knew from your background knowledge that people behave like that when they are cold.

 

TOOL: “It says, I say, and so…”

SOURCE: K.Beers, When Kids Can’t Read

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 4-8

It says: Students find the information in the text.

I say:  Students state what they think.

And so: Students combine the information they find with what they think

 

TOOL: Q-Chart (Graphic Organizer)

SOURCE: Unknown

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring and connecting

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 3-8

 

 

Q-CHART

 

	is	did	can	would	will	might
Who
What
Where
When
How
Why

TOOL: Think Aloud Using Inference

SOURCE: Davey, 1983; Wade, 1990 and M. Tarasoff, 1993

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: K-8

The teacher and eventually students verbalize their own thoughts out loud while reading. This provides opportunities to develop metacognitive strategies which help students monitor their own thinking and reading comprehension.

1. Select a passage that contains points of difficulty (e.g. the author implies or presents ambiguities, there are challenging pictures or vocabulary).
2. Read the passage and think out loud while students follow along and listen to the teacher’s thinking strategies.
3. The teacher makes inferences using text clues, illustration clues and his/her background knowledge. He/she models ways to cope with a variety of difficulties that would be relevant to his/her students’ needs.

TOOL: Inference Sentence Starters

SOURCE: unknown

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 1-8

Create an anchor chart of inference sentence starters with your students. Some to get you started are:

• A prediction I could make would be…
• When I picture____________I see…
• If I were to picture (name a character) as an animal, the animal would be a_________because…
• I realize that…
• Based on…I can infer that…
• I can draw these conclusions…
• Based on the evidence, I think…
• If I had to guess how the main character was feeling, I think…
• I think the author’s message is…
• If I could tell this story from another character’s point of view I would be_____and I would say…
• I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to guess that…
• Using the clue (mentions clue) I’m going to say that…
• I can only guess at (name character) past life, but I think that he/she might have…

TOOL: Inference Anchor Chart

SOURCE: adapted from the work of Johnson and Johnson, 1986 and K. Beers, 2003

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 1-8

Teacher and students create a list of different types of inferences and examples. These examples are provided for your reference but it is always better in practice to generate the examples with your students for the anchor chart.

Location

Example: The waiter brought us menus.

Teacher question prompt: “Think about the setting and see what details you can add.”

Pronouns

Example: Sam ate all the food that was on her plate.

Teacher question prompt: “Look for the pronouns and figure out what to connect them to.”

Category

Example: The ketch and yawl were docked beside the schooner.

Teacher question prompt: “Look for words that you don’t know and see if any of the other words in the sentence or surrounding sentences can give you an idea of what these unknown words mean.”

Time

Example: Mom woke me up for breakfast.

Teacher question prompt:  “As you read this sentence, look for clues that might tell you when the even happened.”

Action

Example: With a bat in hand, the player approached the plate.

Teacher question prompt:  “Figure out explanations for what might happen next.”

Sound

Example: A loud buzzing noise began and soon the tree fell.

Teacher question prompt:  “Think about clues that might give you a hint as to the sound’s origin.”

Smell

Example: The smell of rotten eggs hit him as he opened the door to the house. (I.e. gas stove is origin)

Teacher question prompt: “Think about clues that might give you a hint as to the smell’s origin.”

Object

Example: The vase tipped off the table and exploded as it hit the floor.

Teacher question prompt:  “Can you offer a conclusion about the object in question from a fact offered in the text?”

Occupation or Pastime

Example: Her job was to sweep up the hair and put away the scissors.

Teacher question prompt: “Can you guess what (insert character’s name) job is from a fact offered in the text?”

Cause and Effect

Example: After six days the water was reaching up to the rooftops.

Teacher question prompt: “What clues do you find in the text that lead you to the conclusion that (insert specific effect) occurred?”

Background Knowledge

Teacher question prompt:  “Think about something that you know about this topic and see how that fits with what’s in the text.”

Relationships

Example: He gave his wife an apron for her birthday and she burst out crying.

Teacher question prompt: “After you read this section, see if you can explain why the character acted in this way.”

Intonation and/or emphasis

Example: I stole Ben’s blue pen. I stole Ben’s blue pen. I stole Ben’s blue pen.  I stole Ben’s blue pen. I stole Ben’s blue pen. I stole Ben’s blue pen. I stole Ben’s blue pen? I stole Ben’s blue pen! I stole Ben’s blue pen. (crying) I stole Ben’s blue pen (laughing). I stole Ben’s blue pen. (whispering) etc.  (Just by stressing different words or changing the intonation of your voice you can infer different meanings.)

Teacher question prompt:  “Look at how the character said (insert a specific quote). How would you have interpreted what the character said if he had said (change how it was said or stress different words).”

Author’s bias/author’s view of the world

Example: I’m not sure that you have the life experience to be able to appreciate this experience.

Teacher question prompt: “As you read this section, look for clues that would tell you how the author might feel about (insert a topic or the character’s name)

***this is by no means a comprehensive list of inference types. Please feel free to come up with your own list with your student

 

TOOL: Metaphor

SOURCE: Janine Schaub, Literacy Coach NW5 and NW6, 2009

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 4 and up

Studying metaphors is a great way to teach inferential thinking because a metaphor is a comparison which is not always obvious or likely and must be interpreted to understand the author’s message or implication. Common metaphors include “the neck of the woods” or “the foot of the mountain”. Understanding a metaphor is based on a person’s background knowledge and each person’s “take” can be different but plausible. Some examples:

She has a heart of stone.
You are the light of my life.
He tried to help but his legs were rubber.
Crocodiles’ teeth are white daggers.
He slithered into town quietly so no one would notice when he dug his fangs in and slowly poisoned their minds.

TOOL: Reading and Analyzing Strategy (Graphic Organizer)

SOURCE: Tony Stead, “Is That a Fact? Teaching Non-fiction Writing, Stenhouse Publishers, Scholastic Canada, 2008

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: connecting

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 3-5

 

Content	What I think I know	C*	M**	New Facts	Wonderings
E.g. appearance
E.g. habitat

 

*confirmed

**Misconceptions

 

TOOL: Listening for Picture Words (Graphic Organizer)

SOURCE: Adrienne Gear, Reading Power, Pembroke Publishers, 2006

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 2-3

 

Listening for Picture Words

While you read…

Visualize the story. Use the author’s words to help you make pictures in your mind.

After you read…

Draw one of the pictures that you visualized as you read. Around the picture, write the picture words (adjectives) the author used that helped you make the picture.

 

TOOL: Visualizing During Reading (Graphic Organizer)

SOURCE: Adrienne Gear, Reading Power, Pembroke Publishers, 2006

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: Grade 1-3

 

Visualizing During Reading

 

Name: ________________________ Date: _________________

 

 

1. My image now…	2. …and now…
…and now	4….and now…

 

TOOL: Inferring using handwritten notes as examples

SOURCE: Janine Schaub, Literacy Coach NW5 and NW6, 2009

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADE: 6 and up

 

Have students write down the internal text that comes from the external text from notes they might find in everyday contexts. Here are some examples:

• (Text message) Where are you? Call as soon as you get this.
• (Mother puts a sign on teenage son’s bedroom door) Enter at your own risk. An unknown bacterium is said to be growing in this room.
• (In the football team’s locker room) I am your coach, not your mother.
• (At the vet’s office) Puddles are for jumping over, not walking through.
• (At the library) Check it out—really!
• (In the women’s washroom) Only toilet paper in toilet. All other paper products in bin provided.
• (On the yogurt in the fridge) Nancy’s ONLY.
• (Above the sink in a university residence) Any person finding unwashed dishes, cutlery and pots in this sink is obligated to destroy them with the hammer provided.
• (An envelope found on a pillow) Rob, for your eyes only.
• (In a lunch bag) Good luck on your test today!

Have students generate their own notes. Share the notes as a group activity.

 

TOOL: Inferring using open-ended situations

SOURCE: Think Literacy

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADE: 6 and up

With a partner, discuss what might be happening in the following situations:

1. A young man brings a bouquet of flowers to the home of a girl who goes to his school.
2. A truck is parked in a Canadian Tire parking lot. No one is inside, the headlights are on and the driver’s door is open.
3. Your neighbour, married about a year ago, is shopping for diapers and baby formula.
4. A car containing two men has been parked in front of your neighbour’s apartment every day for a week.
5. You see your neighbour’s truck with four flat tires.
6. A woman runs into a convenience store asking to use the phone.
7. Early one morning, you are walking past the home of one of your neighbours who is a police officer and you notice that there is roofing nails scattered over the end of the driveway.
8. You are eating dinner and the phone rings. Your mom answers, rolls her eyes and says, “We’re not interested,” and hangs up.

 

TOOL: Inference situations for Primary Students

SOURCE: Janine Schaub, Literacy Coach NW5 and NW6, 2009

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADE: K-3

Read the following text.

What inferences can you make about what is not stated in the sentence?

The boy pushed his way to the front of the ice cream truck line.

The girl moved the book very close to her face as she read the story.

Just before she got into her car, the woman quickly dashed back into the house.

The cat crouched down and slowly crept through the grass.

During the thunderstorm no one could find the dog anywhere

inside the house.

After she fell and hurt her knee the little girl would not talk

to her friend. 

Primary Inferring Words

 

I think	I know
I believe	I feel
I guess	I suppose
I hope	I realize
I plan	I want
I figure	I predict

 

TOOL: Inference Situations for Intermediate Students

SOURCE: unknown

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADE: 6 and up

These situations can be a catalyst for discussion in pairs or in a group. They are meant to be used as an introductory activity when teaching the skill of inferencing.

Inference situation one:

Three boys are walking down the street.  Peter has just shoved his allowance money into his pocket. Ed and Tommy start patting Peter on the back. They are telling him what a good friend he is and what a good football player he is. They also tell him how smart he is. It seems they just can’t compliment him enough.

Inference situation two:

Andrew and his mom and dad are all outside in their yard in the snow building a snowman.  After only five minutes, Andrew heads for the front door to his house.  He’s had enough. Mom and Dad look very surprised.

Inference situation three:

You ask your sister how she did on her chemistry test. She replies by slamming down her books on a table and snapping, “It’s none of your business!”

Inference situation four:

You call your friend and instead of talking non-stop as usual she answers your questions with one-word responses. Then all of a sudden she says she has to go and see you tomorrow at school.

Inference situation five:

You are watching two mothers having a serious discussion but you are too far away to hear what they are saying. One of the mothers has three toy cars in her hand and the other mother is pointing to one of them. They discuss the cars for a few minutes and then the mothers walk over to their children who are playing nearby.

Inference situation six:

You see a man come out of his apartment wearing a bicycle helmet. He stops on the sidewalk and looks at his watch. He takes off his helmet and goes back inside his apartment.

Inference situation seven:

Turner almost wished that he hadn’t listened to the radio. He went to the closet and grabbed his umbrella. He would feel silly carrying it to the bus stop on such a sunny morning.

Inference situation eight:

“Larry, as your boss, I must say it’s been very interesting working with you,” Miss Valdez said. “However, it seems that our company’s needs and your performance style are not well matched. Therefore it makes me very sad to have to ask you to resign your position effective today.”

Inference situation nine:

No, Honey, I don’t want you to spend a lot of money on my birthday present. Just having you for a husband is the only gift I need. In fact, I’ll just drive my old rusty bucket of bolts down to the mall and buy myself a little present. And if the poor old car doesn’t break down, I’ll be back soon.

Inference situation ten:

Bill and Jessica were almost done taking turns choosing the players for their teams. It was Jessica’s turn to choose and only Kurt was left. Jessica said, “You take him, Bill.”

Inference situation eleven:

You are standing at a bus stop and you see a man walk into an instant teller nearby. Another man follows him in. You see both men standing in front of the machine talking. The first man is clearly annoyed and leaves followed shortly by the second man. When the annoyed man is out of sight, the other man returns to the instant teller.

TOOL: Fleshing Out a Character

SOURCE: Yellow Brick Roads Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading 4-12 by Janet Allen, ISBN 1-57220-319-8

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADES: 4-8

Make a graphic organizer with a skeleton in the middle and put the following words around it: thoughts, what he said, what he did, and strengths weaknesses, what he tried to do, feelings and plans (or come up with other words that are more apt for the character your students will be describing). Get the students to “flesh out” the character by finding evidence or quotes to support looking at a character’s self-concept, motivations, etc.

TOOL: Text and Sub-text

SOURCE: unknown

TARGET COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: inferring

APPROPRIATE GRADE: 6 and up

Teacher or students select an important quotation from a story or play. They rephrase what the quotation says in their own words. Students then write the “subtext” of what was implied by the author.

Quotation from the article or story:

Rephrase what the quotation says in your own words:

Subtext (what you think is implied):

Questions That Help Us Infer

These questions were developed using short non-fiction selections that required the reader to make an inference. The answer to the question was not wholly found in the text and the reader needed to “read between the lines” in order to make a complete answer.

Why might people be intimidated by sharks? Use clues from the text and your own background knowledge to support your answer.

How might working in a banana plantation affect the present and future lives of the child labourers? Use details from the selection and your own ideas to support your answer.

This Japanese toilet has some features that might look unusual to you. What might the designer’s intentions have been when he/she developed this toilet? Use what you know about how a toilet works and clues from the picture in your answer.

Carefully study the graph (chart, map, etc.) on this page. What is the purpose of the graph? Use examples from the graph and your own ideas in your answer.

Carefully study the graph (chart, map, etc.) on this page. What conclusions can you draw? Use examples from the graph and your own ideas in your answer.

Carefully study the graph (chart, map, etc.) on this page. What might the person who made this graph have intended you understand? Use examples from the graph and your own ideas in your answer.

Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn

What does the book teach you? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

Looking at the illustrations on page 9, how do you think Sam feels when he first met the old man? How did Sam’s feelings toward the old man change at the end of the story?

The Giving Tree by S. Silverstein

What does the author want the reader to think? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

Who does the “giving tree” represent? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman

Why might “Amazing Grace” be a good title for this book? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

In what ways might Grace be like her grandmother? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

Mrs. Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco

Mrs. Katz tells Larnel that, “Your people and mine are alike, you know. Trouble, we’ve seen.” What do you think Mrs. Katz is talking about when she mentions their shared troubles? Use details from the story and your background knowledge to explain your ideas.

Use your own ideas and support from the story to infer what Mrs. Katz meant when she said her husband was, “such a person.”

Use your own ideas and support from the story to explain why Mrs. Katz and the kitten quickly became good companions.

Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting

Why might the author have included the little bird in the story? Use details from the text and your own ideas in your answer.

What might be the cause of the father and son’s homelessness in the story, “Fly Away Home”? Use your own ideas and support from the text in your answer.

The Rough Face Girl by R. Martin

What might the author’s view of beauty be? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

What devices did the author use to try to make you sympathize with the rough face girl? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

The Always Prayer Shawl by S. Oberman

Why did the illustrator choose to move from black and white to colour illustrations part way through the book? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

What does the “always prayer shawl” represent? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

Faithful Elephants by Y. Tsuchiya

How will the author’s message change or effect how you live your life?  What does it teach you? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

How does the author’s message connect to the world around us? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

Gleam and Glow by Eve Bunting

Why might Marina have started to suck her thumb again and Vicktor started bedwetting? Use clues from the story and your own ideas to answer the question.

At the end of the story Marina is delighted to find Gleam and Glow alive. Why might Marina seem happier than the rest of her family about the survival of the fish? Use clues from the story and your own ideas to answer the question.

Ghost Train by P.Yee

Why might Choon-yi’s father have been proud of his daughter’s journey to North America? Explain your thinking by making reference to the text.

Use your own ideas and support from the story to infer why Choon-yi’s father wrote and asked her to join her in North America with such haste.

Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.” What do you think the author is trying to say to you? Use clues from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

“Sometimes you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.” What do you think the author means by this? Explain your reasoning with clues from the text and your own ideas.

The Great Kapok tree: a tale of the Amazon Rainforest by Lynne Cherry

Why is the loss of even one species, the Kapok tree, so significant? Use clues from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

The man in the story decides not to cut down the tree. How do you think his decision will affect his life? Explain your reasoning.

Riding the Tiger by Eve Bunting

The tiger in “Riding the Tiger” could represent something other than an animal. Using what you know and clues from the story, explain what you think the tiger represents.

What might the author have wanted you to understand when she wrote the words, “Once you get up on the tiger’s back it’s hard to get off, but if you get off fast enough it’s still possible”? Use clues from the text and your own thoughts in your answer.

Mr. Big by Ed Vere

The author says, “No one ever saw the real Mr. Big.” What do you think might have to happen in the story for the characters to be able to get to know Mr. Big?

In the story, Mr. Big thinks of all the things that make him sad and then plays the piano. Use what you know about people’s feelings and clues from the text to guess why Mr. Big might play music when he is unhappy.

 Please click on the file below for the Word format:

k-8 Tools for Teaching Inferring