1. Inferences
When authors of books don’t tell everything about characters and events, readers have to use context (background information from the story) and prior knowledge (stuff you already know) to make an inference.

2. Making inferences, not predictions
Part of inferring
Can check your accuracy as you read
Can find if you were right or wrong
Known
More precise
Reading between the lines
Filling in (in your head) what’s not written on the page
Unknown

15. Good readers Infer to figure out what the author is saying
Read between the lines
Look for clues in pictures or words to help them figure out what the text is about
Keep thinking if their inference is correct or needs to be revised

16. Ways to begin The story said ____, which made me think…
I think ____ will happen because…
When I read _____ it made me realize…
I can the (character) is character trait) because…
How the character acts tells me…
How the character feels tells me…
What the character says tells me…

17. Take a deep breath. Now we’re going to try it with text.

18. “Salva let out his breath in relief
“Salva let out his breath in relief. He was glad that she was not Nuer” (16).

19. “An iron giraffe. A red giraffe that made very loud noises
“An iron giraffe. A red giraffe that made very loud noises. The giraffe was a tall drill that had been brought to the village by the two men who had visited earlier” (70).

20. “Marial put his arm around Salva’s shoulders
“Marial put his arm around Salva’s shoulders. He seemed to know what Salva was thinking, for he said, ‘It doesn’t matter. Don’t you know that if we keep walking east, we’ll go all the way around the world and come right back here to Sudan? That’s when we’ll find our families!’”(30-31).

21. “Children, women, and the elderly used to be off-limits during raids… Now 110 were killed in a village attacked precisely while its young men had gathered elsewhere” (“Sudanese Tribes”¶6).

22. “Immediately, there was chaos
“Immediately, there was chaos. It was as if the people ceased to be people and instead became an enormous herd or panicked, stampeding two-legged creatures. Salva was caught up in the surge. His feet barely touched the ground as he was swept along by the crowd of thousands of people running and screaming. The rain, which was falling in torrents, added to the uproar” (74).

23. “In the camp, he had worn an old pair of shorts and an even older t-shirt. He had taken as good care of them as he could, but there were holes in the shirt, and the waistband of the shorts was stretched out and threadbare. The camp workers handed out clothing whenever donations came in, but there were never enough clothes for those who needed them. Now Salva’s arms were piled high with new clothes. Underwear, socks, sneakers. A pair of long pants. A T-shirt and a long-sleeved shirt to wear on top of it. And he was to wear all these clothes at the same time!” (93)