1. Making Inferences
Goal: to examine how people use visual images and symbols to communicate messages, persuade, and influence others.

2. Look at the photo below. What, literally, do you see?

3. Now: What can you infer — or make an educated guess about — based on what you see? Why?

4. ???
If you inferred from a few clues (the bathing suit, the open arms, the fact that humans can’t fly) that the photo above shows a diver in mid-dive, you’re right.
Today we are going to practice the key skill of making inferences — something all good readers do constantly, mostly without even realizing they are doing it.

5. Definition:
Making inferences means using personal experience or background knowledge as well as information provided in the text or visual image to make assumptions about what is not written or shown.
Inference = “reading between and beyond the lines”
An inference is an idea or conclusion that’s drawn from evidence and reasoning. An inference is an educated guess.

6. Text or visual clues + What I know = Inference
Inference Formula:
Text or visual clues + What I know = Inference

7. Let’s play a little game of…what’s going on in this picture?

8. What’s Going on in the Picture?
What’s the context & what do you know about the context?
What clues are given to help you figure out what’s happening in the picture?
What’s going on in the picture?

9. Activating Background Knowledge:
Your background knowledge is what you already know about a topic.
Think about background knowledge as a file folder in your mind.

10. Your background knowledge is important!
When you don’t have background knowledge for a topic, you will not be able to make good inferences.

11. Building Your Background Knowledge
Research does show that there is a kind of snowball effect for prior knowledge—the more that you know coming into a topic, the more you will learn from it.
The more you read, the more background knowledge you have.
This will help you to learn even more from future texts.

12. Practicing Inferences with short films
For each short film please do the following:
Write down “movie clues – what you saw”
Write down “background knowledge – what you already know”
Write down “inferences – conclusions you can draw from the film”
One Man Band
For the Birds
Geri’s Game
Lifted
Partly Cloudy

13. Create this chart in your notes:
Short Film
Movie Clues – what you saw
Background Knowledge – what you know
Inferences – what can you conclude?
One Man Band
For The Birds
Geri’s Game
Lifted
Partly Cloudy