Inference Jones

How do you teach a child to think critically? One way is to teach them to draw inferences about what they read. Inferences are the meanings we-the-reader assign to text. The author does not have to tell us that the boy who is laughing is happy; we infer that he is happy. We draw from personal knowledge based on our experiences. Readers construct meaning through interpretation and this is the basis of Inference Jones. Each lesson has a text with a title. Ask students to predict what the story will be about based on the title. How did they come to this conclusion? Students will then read a text selection, about half a page. As the teacher, you ask them to create an association between themselves and what they read. Since kids have different experiences, you may have to ask some pretty specific questions until they get the hang of the activity. Students may not relate to all the characters in the text, although the stories are made to be relatable to the grades specified. There are questions to discuss and answers (answer key is in the back for you). Making students aware of things like inference when they are in younger grades will only help them to be better critical thinkers in high school and college. The more a child is aware of how they learn and make connections in their brains from new material to existing information, the better a learner they will become. ~ Sara