What is Inferential Thinking?

1. What is Inferential Thinking? When a reader a reader combines clues from the text with their own background knowledge or from other parts of the text in order to draw conclusions. SOURCE: http://www.dayofreading.org/DOR09HO/Teaching%20the%20Skill%20of%20Inference.pdf

2. What are examples of inferences? • Recognize the antecedents for pronouns • Figure out the meaning of unknown words from context clues • Figure out the grammatical function of an unknown word • Understand intonation of characters’ words • Identify characters’ beliefs, personalities, and motivations • Understand characters’ relationships to one another • Provide details about the setting

3. More Examples of Inferences • Provide explanations for events or ideas that are presented in the text • Offer details for events or your own explanations of the events presented in the text • Understand the author’s view of the world • Recognize the author’s biases • Relate what is happening in the text to your own knowledge of the world • Offer conclusions from facts presented in the text

4. What We Need to Know About Inferences • We need to find clues to get some answers. • We need to add those clues to what we already know or have read. • There can be more than one correct answer. • We need to be able to support inferences.

5. Use Inferencing to Understand This Passage from The Kite Runner: “Sometimes, up in those trees, I talked Hassan into firing walnuts with his slingshot at the neighbor’s one-eyed German shepherd. Hassan never wanted to, but if I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me. Hassan never denied me anything. And he was deadly with his slingshot. Hassan’s father, Ali, used to catch us and get mad, or as mad as someone as gentle as Ali could get. He would wag his finger and wave us down from the tree. He would take the mirror and tell us what his mother had told him, that the devil shone mirrors too, shone them to distract Muslims during prayer. “And he laughs while he does it,” he always added, scowling at this son. “Yes, Father,” Hassan would mumble, looking down at his feet. But he never told on me. Never told that the mirror, like shooting walnuts at the neighbor’s dog, was always my idea (3-4). What can we infer about Amir’s relationship with Hassan? What words reveal this?

6. KIS Strategy • Key Words, Infer, Support • This mnemonic strategy helps us remember the three steps in making and supporting inferences. • Now use this strategy to draw inferences about the relationship between Amir and his father Baba. Read through pages 4-5. What is it readers learn about this father/son relationship?