Inference Hooey: Part Three Addressing Skill

After reading Part One, my friend (and one of my favorite former students) asked: "So what do we DO?"

Teaching inference requires all three approaches - skill, content, and process. This post will cover ideas on teaching the skill of inference. 

Skill: Marzano's advice on teaching inference reveals important insights about teaching inference as a skill (2010). The first step in teaching inference is helping kids realize that they already have this skill. We help bring awareness of their ability. It reminds me of the show Heroes, where ordinary people realized the have superpowers. 

Making inferences is a cognitive superpower. If I stomp into the room, slam the door, and then yell, "You are in big trouble, buster!", kids will know that I'm angry and that someone did something wrong. No one had to teach them how to know that. They learned that from being alive! But I do think that we have to help kids realize that we make inferences when we read, and when we think about life, and when we are learning concepts. 

The second step in being explicit about teaching the skill of inference is to point out the kinds of inferences that we make: automatic and reasoned. 

Predictions are a type of inference. When we are reading a story or watching a movie, we get an idea of what we think is going to happen next. Specific things like foreshadowing, cause and effect relationships, setting, character actions, music/tone, and so on are the types of evidence that start our minds moving in that direction. The story or movie hasn't given that information yet, but we have a hunch, or an assumption.  We don't know for sure if we are right, but that kind of thinking superpower is inferencing. (We have to keep reading and adjust our predictions, but that's another blog post.) Predictions are default inferences, "automatic assumptions" (Marzano, 2010). 

Interpretations are also a type of inference. In the graph below, the following interpretation can be made: "Based on a study of temperatures between 9 am and 6 pm...on sunny days in July, the warmest temperatures occur about 3 pm" (Ryland, 2010). 

The graph does not explicitly state that the highest temperatures usually happen at three o'clock, you have to make that interpretation.

Conclusions are also a type of inference. If I were to use the same data as above to plan a pool party, I could pick the best time to ask people to arrive. At nine am, it's still a little chilly (59 F).  By noon, it's going to be pretty comfortable to get wet. That's a conclusion. The graph doesn't tell me that explicitly, but I can use that data to make a decision. Both interpretations and conclusions are reasoned inferences made "about a topic on the basis of available information" (Marzano, 2010). 

Generalizations are also a type of inference. As students read and experience many texts, they begin to see common themes, trends, actions, and plotlines. It's the same thing we do when we make stereotypes about men, women, politics, culture, etc. When spooky or ominous music plays in a movie, we know that something bad generally happens next. When characters in a story are doing dumb things like making houses out of sticks or talking to wolves, we know they are probably headed for problems. We know this because, in general, that's how plot and character development work. 

Building awareness that one has made an inference and understanding the types of inferences that can be made is a powerful revelation. 

Part of the process of building awareness requires the thoughtful mediation of the teacher. This technique is called Elaborative Interrogation (Ozgungor & Guthrie, 2004). The teacher becomes a thinking partner with the child or class to discuss the inferences made. Marzano culled four questions that teachers can use to direct these conversations (2010). I added a few words and comments to them. I kept his exact words in italics for you.

1. What is my inference?
2. What information (premise, basis) did I use to make this inference? 
3. How good (true, valid) was my thinking? (The teacher is looking for misconceptions and pseudoconcepts here. This will help identify content understanding that might be missing or misunderstood.)
4. Do I need to change (update) my thinking? Do I need to gather more information?

While playing around to find activities about building the skill of inferencing, I found some activities that you might enjoy using with your kids. 

Rags to Riches This is a cute little flash game that challenges the reader to make a conclusion based on a short blurb of text. The examples are all common sense life situations. Four choices are given. If you pick the right one, you earn money until you become a millionaire. 

Into the Book This one is my favorite. The reader must click on text evidence and then choose from a set of inferences. The clues add up to make an overall inference about the text. 

Riddles  Wanna practice the cognitive skill of making an inference? Try these riddles. The site lets you guess with one clue at a time. 

Mysteries  This is a powerpoint that reveals a clue with each click. They're pretty fun and engaging.  

30 Second Mysteries Board Game  I love Amazon. 

30 Second Mysteries: A Book You Can Play by Erin Conley. There's a series of them. 

Brain Pop There are several links and activities here that you can use. Kids always seem to like their stuff. 

Osgungor, S., & Guthrie, J.T. (2004). Interactions among elaborative interrogation, knowledge, and interest in the process of constructing knowledge from text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(3), 437-443. 

Ryland, R. (2010). Lesson: 9.3 Drawing Conclusions. Betterlesson. Accessed from: https://betterlesson.com/community/document/226492/prentice-hall-drawing-conclusions-pdf 

Marzano, R. (2010). Teaching inference. Educational Leadership, 67(7), 80-01. Available online at http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr10/vol67/num07/Teaching-Inference.aspx.