Inference Hooey: Part III Addressing Process to Fill the Gaps

I have to be honest with  you. I am writing about inference to learn about it. Two sets of experiences led me to this exploration. When I was at the Reading Academy training in Austin, they introduced us to some new ideas about inference. I'd never ever ever heard that before. I wasn't really sure what all of these types of inferences were, but a first glance made me think of processes.

Then I attended the first day of the lead4ward academy and and heard a controversial statement: on STAAR, we don't assess context, inference, summary, or connections the ways readers use them to read.  I'd never ever ever thought that before. After I picked my jaw off the floor, I realized, context, inference, summary, and connections themselves are processes that readers use to comprehend text.

After using these "tools to know," there are watch to show our thinking about the text.

These things are identifying theme, topic, main idea, writing a summary, and discussions tone and mood. All of these require the reader to use the first row concepts to process the thoughts. All of these require the reader to make inferences. 

The $100,000 Question: So what does that look like in a lesson? 

Begin with QAR:

Students need to understand the kind of thinking we are asking them to do. Do they know when they need to infer? The QAR strategy is probably the best example. It's a strategy that helps the reader understand the relationship between the question (the cognitive task) and the right answer. I think that's the place to begin. Then you can begin teaching the processes described in the TEA slides. 

Fill the Gaps: Ask Questions and Consider the Author's Intentions

Ask Questions about What's Missing: Do kids realize that stuff is missing in a text? I'm thinking about the Goldilocks example. Why did Goldilocks break Baby Bear's chair? The text never says that Goldilocks does it on purpose. It was an accident. That's missing. The chart below shows something else that is missing - it says that Goldilocks is not a baby. The text called her a little girl, but it never called her a baby. I'd have to say that's missing in the text too. The text never says that Goldilocks weighs more than Baby Bear either. Those are all reasoned inferences based on things not present in the text. 

Ask Questions to Monitor Your Comprehension:

So the effective reader with inference superpowers needs to continually monitor their comprehension by asking questions to make sense of the text. I taught it like this: 

I had kids draw the pictures in their journals while I modeled the process on the chapter book I read aloud to the class. Then I gave them all little Popsicle stop signs and had them partner read. The partner would stop and ask the reader questions. They'd discuss and reread or trade tasks if everything was clicking along. 

Ask Questions about  the Author's Intentions: 

Why did the author include or exclude certain information? 

Why did the author choose to write it in that way? 

Why did the author choose the genre?

What is the author trying to accomplish? 

The reading academy included a lesson asking questions about the author's intentions. You can download the participant materials here. Look for the Comprehension section, Handout 4. You can also press cntl and the f key simultaneously. Then you can search for Chicken Sunday to quickly navigate to the right page. 

Caution: The questions do a good job of connecting to the author's intent, but I don't think it goes far enough. Here's an example: The author says that Stewart and Winston were her "brothers by a solemn ceremony" and that their gramma was her gramma. Why does she describe them this way?  I think following up with a question about why the author chose to include that detail about the ceremony and why she chose to use a colloquial term for grandmother would be a better question. Then you could talk about how those choices in craft helped the author deliver the central message more effectively. 

Ask Carefully Planned Questions during Frequent Read Alouds: 

To plan a read aloud for this purpose, divide the text into four chunks. After each chunk, pick 3-4 vocabulary words to develop and discuss that the writer chose that give the writing power and beauty and are key to establishing understanding, particularly connotation. Then create a question that you can pose to the class about filling in the gaps of the reading. Write words and the question on a bookmark or sticky note. 

Fill the Gaps: Connect Background Knowledge to Text Evidence: 

This image sums it up pretty well about how to make this work in the classroom. 

This link from ASCD gives the entire chapter of Overcoming Textbook Fatigue. It lists some fantastic lesson ideas and approaches to add to your tool-belt. 

The next two blogs will address Process to Build a Mental Model and Process to Make the Text Cohere.