MAKING INFERENCES

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MAKING INFERENCES

• A.K.A. reading between the lines!

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The men walked down the street to the mine
with their heads bent close to their chests. In
groups of five or six they scurried on. It was
impossible to recognize individuals from the
small gaps between their caps, pulled down over
their eyes, and the tightly bound scarves tied
tightly over the bottom half of their faces.
What was the weather like as the men walked to
the mine?
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It was cold and windy!!!!!!!

• Yes. You probably arrived at this answer because
  you associated hats pulled down and scarves with
  winter or cold weather. The word scurried
  suggests the men were hurrying to reach their
  destination.

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So, to really understand what you read.
You need to be like Sherlock Holmes and be a
first class detective!
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Inference can be used in several ways to help you
respond fully to a piece of reading.

• You can infer a general facto or a precise piece
  of information
• You can infer emotions and feelings of characters
  in a passage
• You can infer information about the
  author-his/her opinions, feelings and point of
  view.

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So, what is making an inference?

• Making an inference is the ability to connect
  what is in the text with whats in your mind to
  create educated assumptions about meaning.
• Simply put, its reading between the lines.

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• Read the passage.
• Figure out what is going on in the story
• Jot down your ideas.

• He put down 10 at the window. The woman behind
  the window gave 4. The person next to him gave
  3, but he gave it back to her. So, when they
  went inside, she bought him a large bag of
  popcorn.

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Is this what you thought happened?

• A man and a woman have gone on a date to the
  movie. Tickets cost 3 dollars and the man pays
  for both himself and the woman, getting change
  back from the ticket cashier. The mans date
  tries to give him 3 dollars for her ticket, but
  he wont accept it because hes being nice. So,
  since she cant buy her own ticket, the woman
  buys popcorn to call it even.
•  

(It is one possibility!)
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Or is this what you thought?

•          In order to make any sense of this
  story, you have to make some assumptions about
  the references of the pronouns. For example, you
  could infer that the he the man on the date.
  You also could infer that the her and she in
  the third and fourth sentences are referring to a
  different woman than the woman behind the
  counter, meaning the man, the woman behind the
  counter, and the her/she are three separate
  people. Furthermore, you could infer that the
  woman behind the counter is the movie cashier,
  while the her/she of the later sentences refer
  to the mans date. You also could infer that
  they in the last sentence is referring to the
  man and his date, not the man and the woman
  behind the counter or a group of other people.

(It can get complicated when you think about your
thinking, cant it?)
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So lets simplify it a bit, with a diagram..
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(No Transcript)
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So getting back to the basics.

• Reading is not just sitting there.
• Its an active process.
• Ambiguous pronouns force a lot of assumptions on
  readers!
• So ask questions.
• Read with a purpose to focus your thinking and
  understanding.

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You inference all the time, without even knowing
it.

• Cartoons force you to infer meaning!

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Whats going on here?

• What is about to happen and why?
• Why is this funny?
• Or is it?

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Get the joke?

• What happened here?
• Why is this funny?

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This is cute.

• Turn to a partner and share a few comments about
  the humor in this cartoon.
• Raise your hand when you have agreed upon why it
  is funny.

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Huh?

• Whats the deal with this picture?

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What is it that you infer that makes this picture
so incredible?
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So, you think you get the hang of it?

• Great. Because, look out! Here comes the packet! ?