Inferencing

Make teaching inferencing a true success this school year with inferencing activities, lesson plans, instructional slide decks, and more resources created by teachers and curated by an expert teacher team! Inferencing is a key skill for students as they develop their reading and writing skills, and it's no surprise that it's also a key component of the Science of Reading.

What Is an Inference and How Do You Teach It?

Inferencing involves the use of a student's prior knowledge combined with textual information to help them:

• Draw conclusions
• Make critical judgments and connections
• And form interpretations

It's something most of us do every single day, even if we don't realize it. Students may wake up in the morning, smell bacon, and make an inference that Grandpa is making breakfast. They used their prior knowledge about Grandpa's meal-making habits, combined with the information gleaned from the scent, and made a conclusion as to what was going on downstairs. What sets inferencing apart from observations is that students (and we, the teachers!) need to be able to not just take in information via our senses — such as the text they're reading — but also to use that information to make a decision about a person, place, thing, or even an event. To do that, they connect clues and ideas. Students aren't guessing when they're inferencing or inferring. They're making informed conclusions that are evidence-based and involve reasoning. This is why teaching inferences or the act of inferencing is so important. This tool takes students from being casual observers in the act of reading to being active participants. Some great ways to teach inferencing include teaching students to:

1. Read a text or a book
2. Identify the inferencing question
3. Hunt for clues, and list them out
4. Put clues/details together
5. Draw a conclusion.

To help your students become skilled at inferencing, dive into this collection of inferencing activities, Google Slides, and more!