I know from my experience, making an inference can be tricky...what if we're wrong? That's the beauty of making an inference about what's happening or going to happen in a text. The whole idea of making inferences is based on a "best guess" strategy. Beers explains that this process is based on our "internal tex," or what we are thinking as we read the external text (printed information).
We're given some great suggestions we can use to help us as we consider what inferences we are going to make. Many of these are very obvious, many may require us to really think about what we have read and what it means to us. After reading the text passage on page 64 and comparing it to the classroom discussion on pages 66 - 68, I was amazed at how many different inferences there were!
It is important for us to teach our students how to make inferences and to understand that if your inference does not prove correct...it's not bad; it's just an opportunity to reconsider the facts.
I have expressed in my blog that I often don't feel confident about my own abilities to make infereces. I think you nailed my fear right on the head when you said "what if we're wrong?" Although I know that it is a guess and that it's okay if I'm wrong, the perfectionist in my doesn't want to be wrong. I also feel that I miss important details when I read that would guide me in that process. Regardless, I thought this chapter did an excellent job of giving me some strategies that I can use personally and in my future classroom!
ReplyDeleteI really liked the idea of the Syntax Surgery from this chapter to model to students how to make an inference. Too often I believe we assume students know what things are and we do not model enough. It is not enough to simply tell a student what an inference is, we must show them. I love the idea of tearing apart a text in front of a student and showing them exactly what we are thinking. Think-alouds have seemed to prove effective in almost every instance I have ever used them. With this being said, the Syntax Surgery is just one of the useful strategies that Beers provided with us. I love all of her ideas and look forward to using then in my future classroom.
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