Saturday, September 29, 2012

Connect and Infer

Making inferences is tricky business.  Often I find that I don't like the making inferences questions that come with traditional basil textbooks... well there are usually a lot of things I don't like about those traditional textbooks.  They never seem "real" enough for me.  But, what I have learned over the years is that if students can make connections, wonder/think about the text (or other media/experiment) then they can make inferences. Regardless of age or ability.  There inferences may or may not be correct but that is okay.  (This is where learning to celebrate mistakes and a risk free learning environment comes into play.)

Making inferences is tough business.   Here's how I made it easier...  Two column note-making.  We would do these together as a class... Model, Model, Model. Anchor Chart, Anchor Chart, Anchor Chart. 

Ask students to list something they read, saw or heard then ask them to write their thinking about it.  I have also used a three column version of this chart that includes a place for connections to the text but that may or may not be needed.  Here are my organizers for making inferences.   Please check them out. :)  Hopefully, they will help your young thinkers!





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