Reading Comprehension Strategy: Making Inferences Readers need to find the meaning behind the words.

What Are Inferences?  Inferences are often referred to as what you “read between the lines.”  The meaning is really found “between your ears.”  Inferences are what the author implies or suggests.  The author wants you, the reader, to make the jump to the same conclusion the author has made.  When the author implies something, the reader has to infer. (Zimmermann and Hutchins, 2003, p. 97).

What Happens When You Read?  While you read, your inside voice: –Makes guesses –Finds connecting points –Asks questions –Makes predictions –Personalizes the reading –Uses background knowledge to interpret Zimmerman and Hutchins, 2003, p. 97.

When Do We Infer?  We infer all the time.  “Feeling empathy for characters, laughing at a joke, discovering an answer to a riddle, getting a sense about the setting of a story, reacting to facts, and solving a mystery are all part of inferential thinking.” (Zimmerman and Hutchins, 2003, p. 115).

A Simple Inference  If the skies suddenly grow very cloudy and the wind begins to whip around your legs, how do you infer? –You have seen this weather pattern before. –You have background knowledge about storms. –You make connections between your background knowledge and the current weather pattern. –Based on these connections, you make a prediction.

Let’s Use Background Knowledge Even couples with only mild difficulties in communicating can have important misunderstandings. Marjorie, for example, wanted Ken to invite her to a favorite cocktail lounge overlooking a bay to celebrate their anniversary. She archly asked him, “Ken, do you feel like going out for a drink tonight?” Ken, who was feeling tired, missed the hidden message contained in her question. He responded, “No, I’m too tired.” Marjorie was extremely disappointed. Only after feeling hurt and sorry for herself did she realize that she had not communicated to Ken her real desire – to celebrate their anniversary. When she later made clear her true wish, he readily agreed to celebrate. Even couples with only mild difficulties in communicating can have important misunderstandings. Marjorie, for example, wanted Ken to invite her to a favorite cocktail lounge overlooking a bay to celebrate their anniversary. She archly asked him, “Ken, do you feel like going out for a drink tonight?” Ken, who was feeling tired, missed the hidden message contained in her question. He responded, “No, I’m too tired.” Marjorie was extremely disappointed. Only after feeling hurt and sorry for herself did she realize that she had not communicated to Ken her real desire – to celebrate their anniversary. When she later made clear her true wish, he readily agreed to celebrate. Beck, Love is Never Enough

What Can You Infer?  Marjorie and Ken are probably married?  Marjorie and Ken have been married for a long time?  Ken does not enjoy going out for drinks with his wife?  If Marjorie had expressed her wish more clearly, Ken would have probably agreed?  All couples can have communication problems? Which of the assumptions listed below can be inferred from the text?

You Used Your Background Knowledge  Couples have anniversaries.  Couples married both a short time and a long time have anniversaries.  Married couples you know have had misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

Let’s Look At Another Story Boori Ma, sweeper of the stairwell, had not slept in two nights. So the morning before the third night she shook the mites out of her bedding. She shook the quilts once underneath the letter boxes where she lived, then once again at the mouth of the alley, causing the crows who were feeding on vegetable peels to scatter in several directions. As she started up the four flights to the roof, Boori Ma kept one hand placed over the knee that swelled at the start of every rainy season. That meant that her bucket, quilts, and the bundle of reeds which served as her broom all had to be braced under one arm. Lately Boori Ma had been thinking that the stairs were getting steeper; climbing them felt more like climbing a ladder than a staircase. She was sixty-four years old, with hair in a knot no larger than a walnut, and she looked almost as narrow from the front as she did from the side. Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies, as printed in Zimmerman and Hutchins, 2003, pp

Questions And Observations You Can Make About This Passage  Why hasn’t Boori Ma slept in two nights?  Why doesn’t she wash her bedding to get rid of the mites?  Why is she so thin?  Why does she have such as formal title – “sweeper of the stairwell”?  How long has she been doing this?  Your background knowledge tells you that she is very poor (her living conditions).  Your background knowledge may also tell you how it feels to be infested by pests like mites or lice  What will happen to this woman? Zimmerman and Hutchins, 2003, pp

Guiding Questions To Help With Inferences  The author gave me a gift in the title. What prediction popped into my head from it? How does it help me?  Now that I’ve almost finished this passage, can I confirm my predictions?  What message do I think the writer wants me to understand? How will this help me remember the reading?  What words helped me reach my conclusions?  How can I explain my inference to somebody else? Zimmerman and Hutchins, 2003, pp

So, When We Infer, We…  Make inferences based on sound reasoning.  Use background knowledge to make connections and personalize the reading.  Ask internal questions while reading.  Make predictions and confirm or discard them as we continue reading.  Try to recognize the author’s purpose and message.  Make inferences using what is “between our ears.”

“Writers give clues, but readers have to amass the evidence and draw conclusions for themselves.“ Zimmerman and Hutchins, 2003, p. 106

References  Anonymous. “The Puzzle.”  Beck, Aaron. Love is Never Enough. NY: HarperCollins,  Bonham, Tal D. The Treasury of Clean Jokes. Nashville, Broadman Press,  Pratt, Anthony E. Clue. NY: Parker Brothers,  Vivian, John. The Media of Mass Communications. Boston: Allyn & Bacon,  Wintner, Gene. The Reading Quest. Boston: Allyn and Bacon,  Zimmerman, Susan, and Hutchins, Chryse. 7 Keys to Comprehension. NY: Three Rivers Press, 2003.