INFERENCING

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Home : 2003 : October : 10

INFERENCING
By HEIDI

I have a great book that has reproducible activities to teach inferencing. Whiel they are usually a story with questions, let me share an idea that just popped to mind, stemming from one of the stories. Come into class
one day, all excited because you saw a big, red truck go by. One with a ladder. And it had several men. Exclaim that you wonder where it was going, etc. Make a big production of it, like kids do when they see a fire truck. But don't tell them you saw a fire truck. They will jump to that conclusion. Ask them what makes them think it's a fire truck? They'll tell you becuase it's red,

had a ladder, and you said it was full of men. They will probably not ever think that perhaps it was just a half-tonne pickup truck with a ladder becasue it's a company going to fix a window, or evestroughing. This might be a memorable way to target the concept that sometimes we can draw conclusions, or make an inference, based on hints that a person (or author) provides. SOmetimes, we can jump to conclusions that are completely wrong, and sometimes even cause troubles for us. But as a reader, it can be good to make inferences. When we make inferences, we connect what the author tells us to what we know from our own life and experiences. Do you think someone in a remote tribe deep in the rainforest would assume a red truck was a firetruck? No. Probably not, because their experiences are not the same as ours in North America. Authors rely on our ability to jump to certain conclusions. It would be very boring if they always came right out and told us everything they needed us to know.