Making Inferences

1. Making Inferences 9th Grade Global Literature

2. What is an inference? • An inference is a conclusion drawn from your own background knowledge (schema) and textual evidence.

3. Schema • Schema is your background knowledge; it is what you already know from your own personal experiences and knowledge

4. Textual Evidence • Textual evidence is what the text says directly. • However, sometimes inferences do not come from literature. You can also make inferences based on observations, for example look at the picture on the next slide. Although there is no written text, there is still observable evidence.

5. Why make an inference? • Good writers “show, don’t tell” when they are writing, therefore, good readers must read between the lines to figure out what is going on in a text.

6. How to make an inference What you see + what you know =inference

7. A formula for inferencing It says… (what does the text say/what do you see) I say… (what is your background knowledge on the topic So… (what is your inference)

8. Practice! I will now show you a series of texts (visual texts) and we will make inferences based on what we see/what we already know.

9. What can you infer about the person with this bumper sticker?

10. Practice! • It says.. “Got dog hair?” • I say… People who have bumper stickers about dogs usually love dogs. Also, people who have dogs that shed usually have dog hair all over. • So… this person must be a dog lover with a shedding dog!

11. What can you infer about the person with this bumper sticker?

12. This can also be done with visual texts

13. It says (or I see).. a pair of lips with a burn mark that looks like a bullet hole • I say…people who smoke put their cigarettes between their lips • So… this must be an add comparing the dangers of smoking being shot. Both can lead to death