• inferring
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     Inferring is the process of merging your schema with evidence.  
     
    ~Concrete Experience: The Mystery House
       To help the students better understand inferring, I start off by telling them an interesting story about a house on my street that puzzles me.  I tell them that my curiosity has gotten the best of me, so I decided to take a small bag of trash at the end of the driveway of the mystery house.  Then I show them the bag of trash, telling the students that by examining the evidence, we can make some inferences to help us figure out the mystery of my neighbors.  As a class we sort through the garbage and the students are given time to turn and talk about what they can infer based on the evidence they see.
     
    ~Sensory Experience: Listen Between the Lines
       Many songs contain lyrics with strong symbolism and layers of meaning.  The students will be asked to listen to a song and use the "thinking stems" listed below to discuss inferences in an enjoyable way.  
     
    ~Wordless Books by Istvan Banyai
        To continue to reinforce the reading strategy inferring, the students are partnered up with another student and given a wordles picture book by Istvan Banyai.  This Hungarian illustrator uses his remarkable talent to keep us guessing as we travel through his wordless wonderlands.  Below are the "thinking stems" to go along with inferring to help support their dialogue as they practice "drawing conclusions."    
     
     
     
     inferring