Making Inferences RL 10.1

Inferences (RL/RI 10.1)

Adapted from K. Mayfield’s Inference PPT

“Cite strong and thorough textual

evidence to support analysis of what

the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.”

Why are we asked to make inferences?

• Authors do not always state the information directly

• They give clues and expect the readers to figure out what is implied

• They want the readers to use details and form a conclusion

Open Ended

Answer: What I saw + what I already know = What I inferred

Open Ended

Answer: What I read + What I already know = What I inferred

“I never believed in Santa Claus. None of us kids did. Mom
and Dad refused to let us. They couldn’t afford expensive
presents, and they didn’t want us to think we weren’t as good as
other kids…So they told us all about how other kids were
deceived by their parents…” (39).

1. What can you infer about the narrator’s parents?
2. Which part of the text led you to infer this?

Open Ended

Answer the questions.

Multiple Choice

Based on this passage, what inference can you make?

• Thomas Perez will very likely win the election

• Newton Falls has been experiencing financial hard times.

• Newton Falls is doing well under its current mayor

• Thomas Perez is the writer of this passage

 Newton Falls has been experiencing financial hard times.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is an unsupported conclusion about Thomas Perez?

• Thomas Perez think city services should be higher quality

• Thomas Perez does not have enough experience to be mayor

• Thomas Perez believes the city taxes are too high

• Thomas Perez wants to work hard to improve his city

The keywords in the question is unsupported conclusion

• the highlighted sections support choice A , C, D

Multiple Choice

The author's position is that-

• recycling should be for profit

• people can benefit from recycling

• aluminum is too valuable to use

• people do not care about money

Multiple Choice

Why does the author focus on aluminum cans in the argument?

• people frequently return them

• everyone uses them

• they can be recycled for cash

• everyone should buy them

Answer explanations

• People can benefit from recycling: the author implies that recycling is good and has a financial benefit

• They can be recycled for cash: people get their money back; everyone wants money, so that will motivate people.

Multiple Choice

When making an inference, the most important thing is...

• What you know about the topic

• The topic of the text

• The characters in the text

• Being able to prove your inference using evidence from the text.

Multiple Choice

In your daily life, you can make inferences about people by observing their behavior.

• true

• false

Multiple Choice

How to Draw Inferences

1. You look for clues in the text, little pieces of information that seem to relate to the missing information or your question.

2. You think about what you already know from your own experience in the real world.

3. You put these two pieces of the puzzle together in a logical way to produce a reasonable conclusion that supplies the missing piece of information or the answer to your question.

Drawing an inference requires your background knowledge and information from the text?

• TRUE

• FALSE

Multiple Choice

____ in fiction is a reasonable conclusion or judgment about some element of a story based on the information given in the story and the reader's personal knowledge of how the world works.

• A clue

• A question

• An inference

• An implication

Multiple Choice

What is the first step readers must take to draw an inference?

• Put the pieces together in a logical way to produce a reasonable conclusion

• Think about what they already know from their own experience in the real world

• Look for clues in the text

Multiple Choice

What is the second step readers must take to draw an inference?

• Put the pieces together in a logical way to produce a reasonable conclusion

• Think about what they already know from their own experience in the real world

• Look for clues in the text

Multiple Choice

What is the third step readers must take to draw an inference?

• Put the pieces together in a logical way to produce a reasonable conclusion

• Think about what they already know from their own experience in the real world

• Look for clues in the text

Multiple Choice

The launch of the space shuttle Atlantis has been postponed while NASA evaluates a problem with the new robot arm on space station Alpha. The arm will be used to carry out the installation of a new U.S.-built airlock on the space station.

What can you infer from this paragraph? 

• The robot space arm is critical to the space shuttle's mission.

• The robot arm was poorly constructed.

• The space shuttle experiences frequent launch delays.

• The space program is very expensive.

Multiple Choice

It can be inferred that the people are carrying something.

• true

• false

Multiple Choice

It can be inferred that the 2 people are married.

• valid

• not enough evidence