English Language Arts and Reading.K.5.F

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The student is expected to

make inferences and use evidence to support understanding with adult assistance;

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.

One option for assessing this SE is through anecdotal notes and observation during a read aloud, shared reading or small-group reading instruction. The teacher can prompt students by asking strategic questions that lead them to make inferences and use evidence to support their responses.

Example Language for Drawing Inferences:

  • Why do you think ____?
  • How did you know ____?
  • What probably caused ____?
  • What clues led you to believe ____?
  • How might ____ feel ____?
  • I predict ____.
  • I think that ____.
  • My guess is ____.

When observing, a teacher may want to use a rubric to assess student responses.

Sample Rubric:

1) The student is unable to make inferences.
2) The student makes some inferences but is unable to use evidence to support understanding. (For example, the student can understand that a character might be sad but cannot explain how the student knows or how the student drew that conclusion.)
3) The student makes inferences using schema (background knowledge) and personal experiences as evidence to support understanding, but not text evidence.
4) The student makes inferences and uses schema, personal experiences, and clues in the text as evidence to support understanding.

the available body of supporting, valid, and relevant details, facts, or information that supports an inference, idea, or proposition
An inference is a conclusion, generalization, or prediction that results from examining various details and pieces of information and connecting them with background knowledge to determine meaning or make a logical guess. Inferring, in kindergarten, can be seen when a student looks at pictures and sentences in a book and makes guesses about what the student thinks is occurring. To practice this skill in isolation before applying it to context, the teacher might say, “The place I am thinking of is very quiet, and the shelves are filled with books. I go to this place at school.” The students should infer that the place is the library.

Research

1. Gregory, A. E., & Cahill, M. A. (2010). Kindergarteners can do it, too!: Comprehension strategies for early readers. The Reading Teacher, 63(6), 515–200. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/25615842

Summary: This article provides examples from a kindergarten classroom on how to teach the following comprehension strategies: making connections, visualizations, questioning, and inferences.

2. What Works Clearinghouse. (2010). Improving reading comprehension in kindergarten through 3rd grade: practice guide summary. Washington, DC: Institute of Education Science. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/14#tab-summary

Summary: The goal of this practice guide is to offer educators specific evidence-based recommendations that address the challenge of teaching reading comprehension to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. The guide provides practical, clear information on critical topics related to teaching reading comprehension and is based on the best available evidence as judged by the authors.