English Language Arts and Reading.5.6.F

Previous Next
The student is expected to

make inferences and use evidence to support understanding;

comprehension TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts.
Readers must be able to make connections within and beyond a text to be able to come to conclusions about information or ideas not explicitly stated in the text. Students will use context presented in the text, prior knowledge or experience, text features, and/or other comprehension tools to make reasonable, logical assumptions about the intended meaning of a text. For example, an author might describe a character as repeatedly ducking through doorways. The student could infer that the character is very tall.
paraphrased or directly quoted information from a source that supports an inference, thesis, claim, or analysis
Students should be able to consider the context presented in the text, their prior knowledge or experience, text features, and/or other comprehension tools to make reasonable, logical assumptions about the intended meaning in a text. Evidence that corroborates understanding can be any relevant details, facts, or information that helps the student understand what he/she is reading.

Research

1. Brodsky, L., Falk, A., & Beals, K. (2013). Helping students evaluate the strength of evidence in scientific arguments: Think about the inferential distance between evidence and claims. Science Scope, 36(9), 22–28. Retrieved from www.nsta.org

Summary: This article illustrates how inferences are determined by observing and using evidence. The article compliments the Pottle document by applying the definitions within a context. Figures and illustrations are included.

2. DeLaPaz, S., Ferretti, R., Daniel, Y., & MacArthur, C. (2019). Adolescents' disciplinary use of evidence, argumentative strategies, and organization structure in writing about historical controversies.  Written Communication, 29(4), 412–454. doi: 10.1177/0741088312461591

Summary: This is comprehensive study provides argumentative strategies that address how to provide evidence to support a position statement. Although the strategies are implemented in an American History course, the strategies are effective for instruction in RELA. The article includes a significant amount of data.

3. Jonassen, D. H., & Kim, B. (2009). Arguing to learn and learning to argue: Design justification and guidelines. Education Technology  Research and Development, 58(4), 439–457. doi 10.1007/s11423-009-9143-8

Summary: In this study, the researcher suggest that students who experience meaningful learning are also deeply engaged in the learning process. The study focuses on argumentative writing. Jonassen and Kim consider critical thinking as a way to facilitate conceptual change and problem solving with critical thinking foundational to learning how to effectively argue. The study also examines what occurs when a student is unsuccessful in persuading an audience or presenting an argument. The report provides ways to evaluate the arguments for their quality.

4. Pottle, R. (2012). An inquiry into inferring. Retrieved from www.robertpottle.com

Summary: Pottle provides a complete overview of how inference is addressed in text. The text includes a full scope and range of inferring along with definitions.

5. McConn, M. (2014). Connecting students with the human dimensions in literature: Using Brudern's Modes of Thought to deepen literary appreciation. Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 2(2), 106–116. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1110946.pdf

Summary: This article gives teachers a framework to increase students' knowledge of narrative structure, and how it can deepen understanding and lead readers to connections that have meaning in their own lives. Focused on the narrative structure of conflict development—internal conflict and resolution—the author asked students to select a character in O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and determine if the character's conflict was external or internal, using text evidence to support their understanding of the character. Then, students wrote their own narratives, based upon the lessons learned from the reading discussions and personal explorations.

6. Barth, A. E., & Elleman, A. (2017). Evaluating the impact of a multistrategy inference intervention for middle-grade struggling readers. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in Schools, 48(1), 31–41. doi: 10.1044/2016_LSHSS-16-0041

Summary: This study examines the effectiveness of multiple inference intervention strategies that were designed to increase inference-making and reading comprehension for struggling readers. The study focused on using text clues, activating and integrating prior knowledge, understanding character and author's purpose, and responding to inference questions. Details and lesson examples are available in the Appendix.

7. Nokes, J. D. (2008). The observation/inference chart: improving student's abilities to make inferences while reading nontraditional texts: paintings, movies, historical artifacts, and other nontraditional texts are easier to understand when students are skilled in making inferences. These skills transfer to traditional texts as well. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(7), 538–546. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A178358714/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=842641e2

Summary: The author demonstrates how an observation/inference chart can help inexperienced readers make appropriate inferences. The author explains how to observe and make inferences from observations, provides examples of modeling making inferences, and gives examples to support both guided practice for students and students' individual practice.