1. Making
Inferences

2. Make Inference: What authors do
Authors don’t always tell every detail or give every piece of information in fictional stories or nonfiction text .

3. Make Inference:
What readers do
Readers make inferences to supply information that authors leave out.

4. Inference Equation
Text Clues
+ Background Knowledge
= Inference
When you make an inference, you add what you already know to what an author has told you.

5. Examples

6. What the author said + What I know = My inference
The weather had been scorching for weeks.
Summer is the hottest time of the year.
It is summer.

7. What the author said + What I know = My inference
Al took out a pitcher of cold lemonade.
You keep things cold in a refrigerator.
Al took the lemonade out of the refrigerator.

8. What the author said + What I know = My inference
People get out glasses when they want to drink something.
Al wanted to drink a glass of lemonade.
He got a glass out of the cupboard.

9. How Do Great Readers Make Inferences?
Word/text clues
Picture clues
Define unknown words
Look for emotion (feeling words)
Use what they already know (background knowledge)
Look for explanations for events
ASK themselves questions!

10. What Can You Infer? Game Time!
Game Time!
Let’s play a game to find out how good we are at making inferences:
What Can You Infer?

11. Authors vs. Readers Authors Imply, Readers Infer
Authors make implications that readers have to infer
Great Readers are who are always looking out for clues to help them better understand stories and pictures.