Making Inferences and Interpretations of Textual Evidence

1. Making Inferences and Interpretations of Textual Evidence 11th grade American Literature Bryan County Schools

2. An inference is… • gathering clues and reading between the lines. • reaching conclusions on the basis of evidence and reasoning. • “author and me” questions. • A synonym for deduction, conjecture, speculation, presumption, surmise.

3. Authors do not explain everything in a story. • Readers use story clues. • They use details about what they’ve read to make an inference. • Readers use their own personal experience. • They make “text to self” connections. • Readers use prior knowledge. • They make “text to text” connections.

4. What I Read +What I Already Know = What I Infer

5. Look at the political cartoon above. • You probably know that Number 2 and Dr. Evil are characters from Austin Powers. • You should also know that Mitt Romney is running for president against President Obama. • You can infer that Sheldon Adelson has something to do with Romney’s campaign financing. • You can infer that Adelson does not like Obama. • By reading Romney’s (Number 2’s) expression, you can also infer that Romney is happy with Adelson’s feelings. • You can also infer from the picture that the cartoonist RJ Matson is making fun of or satirizing both Romney and Adelson.

6. In order to figure out the political cartoon, you had to read each piece of text and each picture, then connect it to your prior knowledge and personal experience to form the inference. • What I Read + What I Already Know = What I Infer. • It works the same way with literature.

7. Using Textual Evidence • Look at this excerpt from “The Devil and Tom Walker:” • Whatever the woman could lay hands on she hid away: a hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to secure the new-laid egg. Her husband was continually prying about to detect her secret hoards, and many and fierce were the conflicts that took place about what ought to have been common property. (Irving 1) • We know from the story that Mrs. Walker hides away things from her husband. They do not share. • We know from personal experience that good husband-wife relationships rely on sharing and honesty. • This tells us that Tom Walker and his wife do not have a good relationship (inference). • Notice that Washington Irving never comes out and tells us that Mr. and Mrs. Walker have a poor relationship. We infer it. • Authors imply. Readers infer. • Good readers infer using specific textual evidence like we just did.

8. Authors imply. Readers infer. Always infer based on TEXTUAL EVIDENCE.