Module Six: Reading between the Lines: Making Inferences in Content Reading

Objectives

During this module you will

Analyze the mental processes effective readers use to make an inference.
Develop an inference building strategy using classroom content.
Add, elaborate or delete items from your Want to Know list.

Introduction

Third base in our baseball model for content reading is "reading between the lines," also known as making an inference.

Why is the ability to make an inference so important to content readers?

There are at least two good reasons. Number ONE would have to be that content reading becomes more complex as students move up through the grades. To be able to make connections, personalize the text, and dive deeper into the text, students have to use inferencing skill. To move beyond the plain sense of content text a student has to know how to "read the author's mind."

A second reality-based reason for building reading inference skills is that nearly 90% of all standardized and criterion-based assessment questions require students to make an inference about text. Literal, factual questions make up a small percentage of such tests. In this era of test score accountability, we must equip our students with inference-making skills.

Non-Text Reading Inferences: Everyday Inferencing!

Keep in mind that most students already know how to make an inference; they do it constantly all day long. Throughout a school day, they observe our behavior and make inferences about a teacher's mood. When a new student enters the classroom, the student's physical appearance and personal demeanor trigger a set of assumptions (inferences) about the new person. Even the arrangement of furniture in a classroom provides students with information used to infer ideas about what may happen that day in class. The challenge for us is how we get them to transfer this visual, observational skill to the context of print.

Inferencing: "Mining" a text for Ideas; it's Not a Natural Behavior

There are many uses for inference-making skills in all content areas. Beers and other reading researchers have identified ways students use inference-making skills. Students have to read and think between the lines to . . .

Catch a writer's tone (sarcasm, fear, mocking, etc.)
Identify a character's beliefs and personality
Provide an explanation for text events, ideas, or uncertainties
Understand the writer's point of view
Supply the missing or important information in a math problem
Connect the text to your own knowledge, experience, or ideas
Draw conclusions from facts in the print
Detect the informational text pattern being used in the text
Write a summary that is more than sequential retelling
Figure out unknown words from context
Recognize a writer's biases
Compose an effective essay.

Inference "Antennas"

Radio antenna Making an inference requires active participation by student readers. Part of the process lies within the reader's brain, and the other ingredients are found in the print, but you have to have your inference "receptors" working.

Here is a useful analogy. At this very moment in all of our homes, a multitude of radio, television, even wireless Internet transmissions are passing through the rooms. They are invisible yet you can receive them if you turn on your TV, radio, or computer. Similarly, to catch all of an author's invisible ideas, you have to turn on your inference receiver.

The information is lying there just beneath the surface, but you have to look for it. It requires very active participation by students. Passive reading, without active, questioning involvement will result in students being stranded on 2^nd base (literal understanding) both in books and in life.

Text + Reader's Brain = an Inference

A good inference is not a wild guess; in fact, it usually coalesces student thinking with the same text-linked idea. It's based on evidence found in the print.

Readers figure out things that aren't actually written in the text. There's almost always more to a text than just the words on the page. Writers often leave "clues" that good readers can use to discover important information. Those clues are found in the words the writer has chosen to use, combined with the ideas found in the reader's brain.

Is it an Inference, a Prediction, a Connection, a Conclusion or a Summary?

All that glitters in the inference-making world is not gold. For example, many times young readers will make a connection while reading thinking it is an inference; NOT SO. What is the difference?

Inferences

Most inferences are the result of Convergent thinking. That means in a classroom of students, using the cues and clues in the print and then reading between the lines, most kids would converge on the same inference. Inferences are reasonable ideas taken from the text that most students could "converge" and agree upon. Reasonable means there exists a text link that is the factual basis for the inference.

Connections

Connections are highly personalized and Divergent kinds of thinking. The text reminds the reader of a previous experience. Let’s use a simplistic example sentence.

"The strange, salivating dog with his lowered head, and deep growling stopped them on the nature trail."

Not a great piece of writing, but it will work.

Possible inferences that all readers could sense and converge upon linked to the text.

The dog is dangerous.
They are frightened.
They are in the woods or swamp.

Possible divergent connections that individuals might make, but are not really inferences.

"I saw a dog like that once." (highly personal, not an inference, very divergent in thought) Not every kid would have this thought.
"It is like the dog we read about last week." (Connection that several students could make) Kind of a mini inference.

Nothing wrong with connections; in some cases they are the milestones toward making an inference. Most of us when reading make more connections than inferences. Connections result from close examination of text and monitoring of thought processes.

Predictions

Predictions are a form of inference making. Many of the inductive/deductive thinking processes are the same for both inference making and making a prediction. Predicting before reading is less of an inference since no text was involved. Stopping during text reading to make a prediction is a form of authentic inference making.

So, what’s a Summary?

Using our simplified baseball analogy, summarizing occurs somewhere between 2^nd and ³rd base, where the short stop plays. A summary that ends up too close to second base contains mostly recall. Retelling is a second base influenced summary that lacks the flavor of the summarizer mining beneath the text. Novice summarizers and struggling readers are satisfied when they are able to give us a 2^nd base summary.

A summary that gets too close to 3^rd base may contain too much conjecture and "mining" and not enough text link to validate the ideas of the summarizer. Wild, inaccurate predictions and textually invalidated inferences (or highly opinionated but unsupported student ideas about texts) are 3^rd base summaries lacking plain sense linkage.

An effective summary uses elements of both plain sense and reading between the lines. (short stop)

Arriving at a “Conclusion”

The term arriving suggests a mental trip a reader has taken. Working through the plain sense levels and developing a balanced summary (not too much recall, not too much speculation) can enable a reader to make a conclusion. Conclusions are especially suited to contents such as science and social studies. Students sometimes attempt to short circuit the process by "jumping" to a baseless conclusion.

All Deep Processing is Good

Does it really make a difference whether a reader is making a prediction, connection, or an inference? All these comprehension processes require deep processing of text beyond 2^nd base, plain sense.

If they are using text to step beyond plain sense, life is good!

Proceed to Module Six Activities.

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