English Language Arts and Reading.6.5.F

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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.
Students should make reasonable connections within and beyond a text to draw conclusions about information or ideas not explicitly stated in the text. For example, students might recognize that a poem titled “Eating Vegetables” lists activities a person might find unpleasant (e.g., having cavities filled, cleaning the bottom of the trash can with bare hands, and so on). Even if none of the lines ever mentions anything about vegetables, students could reasonably infer that the speaker of the poem finds vegetables undesirable. Students should use context presented in the text, prior knowledge or experience, text features, and/or other comprehension tools to make logical assumptions about the intended meaning in a text.
Students should use information presented in a text to make reasonable, logical assumptions about the intended meaning. Evidence that corroborates understanding can be any relevant details, facts, or information that helps students understand what they are reading.

Research

1. 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://eric.ed.gov/?q=understanding+meaning+in+literature&pr=on&ft=on&id=EJ1110946

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.

2. 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+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A490475287/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=85a8099a

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.

3. 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+. 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 good inferences. The author explains how to observe and make inferences from those observations, provides examples of modeling making inferences, and gives examples to support both guided practice for students and students' individual practice.