Building Inferential Confidence (They Already Do It!)

In Kylene Beers' book, "When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do," the fifth chapter is all dedicated to helping students with the process of making inferences.  Making inferences is something that many teachers struggle with teaching because it is a process that most of us have developed subconsciously.  Our early exposure to literacy caused us to develop skills that are now automatic so long ago that we forget there was ever a time when they did not exist.

Since students who struggle with reading are often spending so much cognitive energy decoding, expending cognitive energy even looking for opportunities to make inferences id not ingrained.  We must therefore train our students to seek out opportunities for inferencing in written text.  The figures on pages 63 through 65 are hugely helpful in this area.  I especially like figure 5.3, which has been labeled very concisely, Comments teachers can make to help students make certain types of inferences.  This is an invaluable list for teachers, but I believe can also be a helpful tool for students.  By giving students this list, either on a bookmark, on a handout or displayed on the wall, students are getting explicit hints about how to analyze a text for subtextual meaning.  This list will be incredibly helpful for students who do not have competence with this practice.

However, just as important as competence with a burgeoning skill is confidence with that skill.  This may actually be easier than you think.  Students who struggle to make inferences in written text are often masters at making inferences in other situations, whether that be in a movie, picture, or even in real life.  Making inferences about the antecedent for a pronoun, for example, is a skill students practice effectively every time they have a conversation.  Understanding characters relationships to one another is a basic social skill that students practice every day.  Helping students to realize that the inferential skills are skills many of them already have mastered in other contexts can be a huge step forward in making inferences in texts.

There are several ways we can do this.  In Cris Tovani's book, "Do I Really Have To Teach Reading," she details an account of using a photograph to make inferences.  In addition, I have often used short film clips to generate inferences.  Pixar short films are great for this.  They are high-engagement, require no background knowledge, and are over in 3-5 minutes, eliminating the problem of students whining, "Can we just finish the movie?"  Transcribing actual conversations by actual students in the classroom to then draw inferences from can also be hugely engaging, as would filming short sequences of student interactions, whether play-acted or genuine.  All of these are viable options to generate an attitude of fun and engagement surrounding a skill that students often find challenging, while also cultivating their own expertise to build confidence in a fundamental literary skill.