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Making Inferences Anchor Chart  (Free idea - adapt it to suit your students' needs)

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Look at the photo above. What, literally, do you see?

Now: What can you infer - or make an educated guess about - based on what you see? Why?

This week, we're reintroducing a lesson plan format - Skills and Strategies - that we've experimented with in the past but have further streamlined for the 2015-16 school year.

In every Skills and Strategies post, we'll focus on either a skill that students need or a strategy teachers can use across the curriculum. We'll describe why and how to practice it, and then we'll make a few suggestions for matching it to Times content.

Below, ways to strengthen the key skill of making inferences - something all good readers do constantly, mostly without even realizing they are doing it.

First, though, if you inferred from a few clues (the bathing suit, the open arms, the fact that humans can't fly) that the photo above shows a diver in mid-dive, you're right. It comes from the Lens Blog's Aug. 3 Pictures of the Day post, and the caption reads, "Carlos Gimeno of Spain competing in the preliminary round of the men's high dive at the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia."

Below, more possibilities for practice - with both visual and written texts.
The Skill: Making Inferences
Our friends at Vocabulary.com provide the following definition:

An inference is an idea or conclusion that's drawn from evidence and reasoning. An inference is an educated guess.

We learn about some things by experiencing them first-hand, but we gain other knowledge by inference - the process of inferring things based on what is already known. When you make an inference, you're reading between the lines or just looking carefully at the facts and coming to conclusions. You can also make faulty inferences. If you hear a person's weight is 250 pounds, you might make the inference that they're overweight. But what if they're seven feet tall?

We also came across this video on YouTube and thought it did a handy job of explaining the skill in an academic context:
Times Applications 1. Practice Inference-Making With Images
Doing what you did with the photo at the top of this post is a great way to practice the skill and become aware of how often, and in how many ways, you employ it. Conveniently, we have a weekly feature in which students are invited to do just that.

Each Monday we post a mystery photo in our What's Going On in This Picture feature and invite students to weigh in on what they see and why. The feature is live-moderated by experts at Visual Thinking Strategies, and students are encouraged to make inferences throughout.

To read more about how teachers use the feature, and to find 10 intriguing images to start with, visit this post.
2. Make Inferences as a Pre-Reading Strategy
By skimming through the paper and looking just at headlines, photographs and opening, or "lede," paragraphs, students can practice making inferences about what articles will be about.

For example, let's say you're a hip-hop fan, and, scrolling through The Times, you find the headline "Notes on the Hip-Hop Messiah."

What can you guess about the piece just from that headline? You know the term "messiah" is often used in a religious context (as Merriam-Webster defines it, "the expected king and deliverer of the Jews; Jesus"), but this doesn't seem to be implying exactly that kind of messiah. The second, more metaphorical definition - "a person who is expected to save people from a very bad situation" - seems to fit better.

Now what can you infer about the article's content from the headline? For instance, how do you think an article called "Notes on the Hip-Hop Messiah" might differ from one called, say, "Crowning a New Hip-Hop Messiah"? How do words like "notes on" make the former more tentative and open-ended than the latter?

Then you read the lede, or opening, paragraphs:

The hip-hop messiah is both real and not real. He - and with the possible exception of Lauryn Hill, it has always been a "he" - is real in the sense that every five years or so, whenever hip-hop feels too boring, or, worse, too corporate, an artist will be appointed as the spiritual future of the form.

But the hip-hop messiah is also a prospective title: When he's anointed, it's not for the work he's already done, but more for the work he should do.

What does this add to your understanding about what you'll read in the rest of the article? What is this writer implying about how "hip-hop messiahs" come to "be appointed"? Who does this appointing? How is this messiah both "real and not real"? What does the use of language like "corporate" in italics imply about what hip-hop fans want in an artist? Why does the writer continue to use religiously tinged language like "anointed" and "spiritual future of the form"? In general, what is the tone of this piece so far, and how does that help you anticipate what this writer will talk about?

Now, look at the photo that tops the article:

Even if you don't know who Kendrick Lamar is, you understand that he is being associated with the term "hip-hop messiah," and that the photo implies that the piece will explore why.

The article - from March, just as he released "To Pimp a Butterfly" - goes on to list previous "hip-hop messiahs" - Nas, Biggie, Tupac - and discuss Mr. Lamar in this context:

Shortly after Kendrick Lamar released "good kid, m.A.A.d city," his 2012 major-label debut, he was anointed the latest in the line of hip-hop messiahs by the critics, enthusiasts and solemn ex-rappers who determine these things.

Read the entire piece - a sophisticated essay on artistry, ambition, race and more - to see how the writer, Jay Caspian Kang, continues the religious metaphor from the headline through the final paragraph, and raises questions about the burdens and limits of being next in line.
More Practice:
What can you infer about the content of the full article just from each of the following headlines and opening paragraphs?

Read each closely, then guess as much as you can about what you think the article will be about. Finally, click on each headline and read each article to see if you were right.

a. From " The New Orleans Restaurant Bounce, After Katrina "

NEW ORLEANS - On a brutally humid day almost 10 years ago, Donald Link was a sweaty, desperate man in a respirator mask lugging a rotting pig's head to the curb.

b. First Came Summer Camp Marriage, Then Came a More Mature Love

They met when they were 17 and 19 years old, and a week later, they were married - in a play.

Now, two years later, something about that feels right.

c. Dorms You'll Never See on the Campus Tour

Nap pods and gaming arcades. Walk-in closets and private bathrooms. Rooftop pools and maid service.

With modern campuses caught up in what is popularly known as the amenities arms race, it is hard to blame incoming freshmen for expecting cushy suites and flat-screen TVs.

Going Further
Challenge students to skim and scan any day's newspaper to find their own headlines, photos and lede paragraphs to use to practice this skill. They might then bring examples in and share them in small groups.

How do you teach the skill of inference-making? Let us know by posting a comment.

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Skills and Strategies | Making Inferences

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In every Skills and Strategies post, we'll focus on either a skill that students need or a strategy teachers can use across the curriculum. We'll describe why and how to practice it, and then we'll make a few suggestions for matching it to Times content.

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How to Teach Literal vs Inferential Questions