Inference question stems
- How do you know that _______?
- What probably caused _______?
- What might happen if ________?
- Based on the selection, which conclusion can you draw?
- What clues led you to believe that the character _______?
- What can you infer from the picture on page ___?
- From the article, you can conclude which of the following happened?
- From the title (heading), you can predict that the text will be about _____.
- What conclusions could you make from the graph supplied in the passage?
- Infer the main idea of the first paragraph from what the details have in common.
- What clues helped you determine the author's purpose for_____?
- How did the author let the reader know his/her perspective on the topic?
Collecting Evidence for inferences
- The teacher will create a focus question about the text that will be referred back to throughout the lesson.
- The teacher will create a T-chart labeled Facts on one side and Inferences on the other.
- As students read the text, they will collect facts that they believe will help them answer the question and place them on the left side of the T-chart.
- Once all facts have been collected, the students will use the formula TC (Text clues) + BK (Background knowledge) = I (Inference) to come up with their inference to answer the question.
Signal words
- infer
- guess
- probably
- clues
- judging
- conclusion
- feel
- think
- believe
- referring
- describe
- reason
- determine
- assume
- hypothesize
- generalize