How to Teach Inference Skills

Inferring is a valuable skill for students to apply when engaging with and responding to texts. One strategy you can use in your classroom is teaching students how to use picture cues to make inferences. 

This digital resource from Teach Starter features ten different everyday scenes with accompanying inference questions. For each scene, students are encouraged to:

• Look carefully, noticing as many different things in the image as they can.
• Capture the context by noting the obvious details in the scene.
• Delve down deeper by using the various clues in the image to make inferences.
• Predict what’s possible by considering what might happen next.

Teaching students to look for clues in a picture leads naturally to looking at a piece of text for clues to support an inference.

This resource downloads as a Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides file.

Infer with Pictures During Your English Lessons

This versatile resource can be used in a variety of ways in your English lessons. Here are some ideas from our team to get you started:

• Think-Pair-Share Activity – Display the image and accompanying questions on the screen, then have the students complete a “Think-Pair-Share” with a partner before discussing the questions as a class. This allows students to think through the questions and their reasoning in a smaller context before participating in a wider discussion.
• Role Play Activity – Have the students look at one of the images and accompanying questions, then work with a small group to act out what they think is happening. Challenge the students to include answers to the questions within their role play.
• Writing Prompt – Have the students choose one of the inference scenes to use as a writing prompt. Challenge them to write a short narrative explaining what happened before, during or after the picture, answering the inference questions organically within their writing.

How to Download This Inferencing with Pictures Activity

If you are ready to use these inference scenes in your classroom, head on over to the green Download button! Here, you will find the editable Google Slides and PowerPoint versions of this resource. If selecting the Google Slides file, please note that you will first be prompted to make a copy of the resource to your personal drive before accessing it.

Additional Inferencing Resources for You

Don’t stop there! We’ve got more activities to shorten your lesson planning time:  

teaching resource

Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences Task Cards

Use this set of comprehension task cards with your students to help them draw conclusions and make inferences when reading.

teaching resource

Inferencing Comics

Use this set of comic strips when teaching your students how to infer information from everyday situations.

teaching resource

Making an Inference – Graphic Organizer Pack

Use these graphic organizers with your students when teaching them how to use text evidence to make inferences.