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Home : 2006 : June : 8

By Margaret916

I think my kids can "do" the inferencing usually but without identifying it. Then when the standardized test uses the word, it throws them for a loop.

We tried this year to make sure they knew what they were doing
-- and what it was called. So I used a smartboard ready made lesson from www.smarttech.com. On the screen comes "clear off your desks -- put everything away but a pencil and a piece of paper"

Immediately you hear the kids groan -- they think it's a quiz or a test (that's the first inference of the lesson). When you ask them what they think we're doing and why they think

that their lightbulbs come on about what their brain is doing. Inference = clues from the text + schema (background knowledge). We do a few more of them and they have worked it all year, but it's great.

Another book that works great is "Squids will be Squids" by by Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith. the book is full of funny stories -- that aren't' funny unless you can make the inference to understand!