Making Inference (Reading)

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A.    Background

As proficient readers, it is sometimes easy to forget that the process of reading is an active one requiring us to make meaning as we go along. Most of us have been reading for so long—be it reading for pleasure or reading for learning—that we sometimes forget how far beyond the written page our reading goes. One of the most difficult skills young readers need to learn is the skill to read what doesn’t appear in black and white on the written page. In other words, the skill to infer. In order to infer meaning, readers must combine the information that the author has written with their own experiences—both reading experiences and life experiences.

Not only is the process of making inferences difficult for a beginner, the process of teaching students to make inferences is not an easy one. And, like so many good reading habits, it doesn’t come naturally for most of our students. The process has to be explicitly taught to students, modeled for students, practiced by students. Eventually, making inferences will become a habit of mind that students will participate in without hesitation.

B.     Formulation of the Problem

1)      What is inference?

2)      How to make inference?

3)      What is It says ... I say ... And so Strategy?

C.    Purpose of Writing

1)      To find what inference is

2)      To find how to make inference

3)      To find what It says ... I say ... And so Strategy is

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A.    Definition of Inference

Inference is a mental process by which we reach a conclusion based on specific evidence. Inferences are the stock and trade of detectives examining clues, of doctors diagnosing diseases, and of car mechanics repairing engine problems. We infer motives, purpose, and intentions.

Inference is essential to, and part of, being human. We engage in inference every day. We interpret actions to be examples of behavior characteristics, intents, or expressions of particular feelings. We infer it is raining when we see someone with an open umbrella. We infer people are thirsty if they ask for a glass of water. We infer that evidence in a text is authoritative when it is attributed to a scholar in the field.

We want to find significance. We listen to remarks, and want to make sense of them. What might the speaker mean? Why is he or she saying that? We go beyond specific remarks to underlying significance or broader meaning. When we read that someone cheated on his or her income taxes, we might take that as an example of financial ingenuity, daring, or stupidity. We seek purposes and reasons

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B.     How to Make Inference

Inferences are not random. While they may come about mysteriously with a sudden jump of recognition, a sense of "Ah ha!" inferences are very orderly. Inferences may be guesses, but they are educated guesses based on supporting evidence. The evidence seems to require that we reach a specific conclusion.

Evidence is said to imply; reader’s infer. While this image suggests an intent or power on the part of evidence that does not exist—how, after all, can a fact compel a certain conclusion?—the image and resulting terminology are useful nonetheless. The sense of inevitability to the conclusion suggests that we did not jump to that conclusion or make it up on our own, but found it by reasoning from the evidence.

The above image implies that everyone will reach the same conclusion. That obviously is not the case—as the examples above suggest. The umbrella might be protection from the sun, the request for water might indicate a need to take a pill, and a footnote may cite only one side of a controversy. Here again, the line between inference and jumping to a conclusion can be awfully thin.

A man gets on a bus. What might be implied by each of the following? He ran to catch the bus. He is carrying a suitcase. He asks the driver for change of a $100 bill.

Inferences are not achieved with mathematical rigor. Inferences do not have the certainty obtained with deductive reasoning. Inferences tend to reflect prior knowledge and experience as well as personal beliefs and assumptions. Inferences thus tend to reflect one's stake in a situation or one's interests in the outcome. People may reason differently or bring different assumptions or premises to bear.

Given evidence that PCB's cause cancer in people, and that PCB's are in a particular water system, all reasonable people would reach the conclusion that that water system is dangerous to people. But given evidence that there is an increase in skin cancer among people who sun bathe, not all people would conclude that sunbathing causes skin cancer. Sun bathing, they might argue, may be coincidental with exposure to other cancer causing factors.

More often than not, disagreements are based not on differences in reasoning, but in the values, assumptions, or information brought to bear. If we believe that all politicians are crooks, we will infer that a specific politician's actions are scurrilous. If we believe that politicians act for the good of all, we will look for some benefit in their actions. Either way, we will try to use reason to explain the actions. We will look for some coherent explanation as a way of making sense of things. As we saw earlier, if we can understand why someone would do something, why someone might say something, why someone might act in a certain way, we feel we have made sense of the act or statement. It's like a murder trial: if we can put together opportunity, motive, and means, we can make a case.

The more evidence we have before us, and the more carefully we reason, the more valid our inferences. This principle plays an important role with reading: the more evidence within a text we incorporate into our interpretation, the more likely we have not gone astray from any intended meaning.

So, when we infer, we :

·         Make inferences based on sound reasoning.

·         Use background knowledge to make connections and personalize the reading.

·         Ask internal questions while reading.

·         Make predictions and confirm or discard them as we continue reading.

·         Try to recognize the author’s purpose and message.

·         Make inferences using what is “between our ears.”

C.     It says ... I say ... And so ... Strategy

One of the most used strategy in making inference is It Says ... I Say ... And So Strategy. It Says ... I Say ... And So is a reading strategy that requires students to consider questions linked to textual material, find information in the text that responds to the question, interpret the text using inference skills, and combine the information from the text and their own thinking to create an answer. The strategy encourages students to realize that when they create meaning, they combine their own ideas and thoughts with evidence and details that they find within a reading selection. The strategy works well with nonfiction and fiction texts.

Steps:

1. The strategy works best when a teacher has spent time modeling the process prior to applying it to content material. Consider using a short and familiar text to teach the strategy. Teachers who use the strategy suggest beginning with fairy tales, folk lore, or legends. After modeling the strategy, apply it to a relevant piece of content area text.

2. Provide students with a copy of the It Says strategy chart.

Questions	It Says	I Say	And so

3. Brainstorm possible questions based on the topic to be read. (In the beginning, you may choose to actually provide the questions. Sometimes questions found at the end of textbook reading selections are appropriate. As students move toward a more independent level, they should be able to create their own questions.)

4. Consider allowing students to work in groups as they learn the strategy.

5. Students follow the steps in the sample chart (see below):

FIRES IN THE BLACK HILLS CHART

Questions	It Says	I Say	And so
Why are forest fires on the increase in the Black Hills of South Dakota?	For the last several years, precipitation amounts from snowfall have decreased.	Less snowfall could mean dry conditions throughout the Black Hills.	Dry conditions resulting from a decrease in precipitation lead to conditions that might make fires more likely to occur.

CHAPTER III

PRACTICE

By using Its Says ... I Say ... And So ... chart, infer these texts below:

1.      Even couples with only mild difficulties in communicating can have important misunderstandings. Marjorie, for example, wanted Ken to invite her to a favorite cocktail lounge overlooking a bay to celebrate their anniversary. She archly asked him, “Ken, do you feel like going out for a drink tonight?” Ken, who was feeling tired, missed the hidden message contained in her question. He responded, “No, I’m too tired.” Marjorie was extremely disappointed. Only after feeling hurt and sorry for herself did she realize that she had not communicated to Ken her real desire – to celebrate their anniversary. When she later made clear her true wish, he readily agreed to celebrate.

2.      Boori Ma, sweeper of the stairwell, had not slept in two nights. So the morning before the third night she shook the mites out of her bedding. She shook the quilts once underneath the letter boxes where she lived, then once again at the mouth of the alley, causing the crows who were feeding on vegetable peels to scatter in several directions.

As she started up the four flights to the roof, Boori Ma kept one hand placed over the knee that swelled at the start of every rainy season. That meant that her bucket, quilts, and the bundle of reeds which served as her broom all had to be braced under one arm. Lately Boori Ma had been thinking that the stairs were getting steeper; climbing them felt more like climbing a ladder than a staircase. She was sixty-four years old, with hair in a knot no larger than a walnut, and she looked almost as narrow from the front as she did from the side.

CHAPTER IV

CLOSING

A.    Conclusion

One of the most difficult skills young readers need to learn is the skill to infer. In order to infer meaning, readers must combine the information that the author has written with their own experiences—both reading experiences and life experiences.

Inferences are often referred to as what you ‘read between the lines’. The meaning is really found ‘between your ears’. Inferences are what the author implies or suggests. The author wants the reader, to make the jump to the same conclusion the author has made. When the author implies something, the reader has to infer.

When we infer, we :

·         Make inferences based on sound reasoning.

·         Use background knowledge to make connections and personalize the reading.

·         Ask internal questions while reading.

·         Make predictions and confirm or discard them as we continue reading.

·         Try to recognize the author’s purpose and message.

·         Make inferences using what is “between our ears.”

To make it easier, we can use Its Says ... I Say ... And So ... strategy.

REFERENCES

ESA. 2006. Strategies to Help Readers Make Meaning through Inferences. South

Dakota : Black Hills Special Service Cooperative (BHSSC).

“Inference: The Process”. Through :

<http://www.criticalreading.com/inference_process.htm> [20/10/2015]