empoweringells-reading-instructionArticle updated December 11, 2019

Guiding Questions
  1. Why is inferencing an important skill to teach?
  2. How can teachers support ELs’ mastery of inferencing?
Goal

The goal of this article is to help ELs develop their ability to make inferences by sharing a language scaffold.

Research Suggests

Academic Language
There is a clear distinction between social and academic language (Cummins, 1991).  Social language is most often learned through social interactions and is highly influenced by context.  Because of the nature of social language, it is developed rather quickly and without much direct instruction.  

Academic language, however, requires direct and explicit instruction because of its abstract, decontextualized nature. Academic language often assumes that the reader already has the context and background knowledge to access the text and concepts. Hence, academic language is often devoid of context and baffles ELs (Cummins & McNeely, 1987).

For ELs to be successful at school and in their future workplaces, they need to be proficient in both social and academic language.  Therefore, it is our responsibility to explicitly teach academic language to empowers ELs to achieve academically and perform better on assessments (Short, Echevarria, & Richards-Tutor, 2011).

Inferencing

The International Baccalaureate Program defines inferencing as the ability to, “Deduce; reason from premises to a conclusion. Listen or read beyond what has been literally expressed” (2014 p. 102).  It is the ability to create a thought or opinion that can be supported by the text. Oftentimes, it requires combining one’s background knowledge and life experience with the text-based evidence.

Why Teach Inferencing

One reason to teach inferencing is that students are required make them during in-class and national standardized assessments. However, it also develops ELs critical thinking skills. Marzano suggests that it is a foundational skill that is a prerequisite for critical thinking (2010).  Additionally, it is used across content areas.  For example, ELs need to both make inferences about communities they are studying in a humanities class and draw conclusions about the data from a lab experiment in science.

Inferencing is a complicated mental move that requires close reading of the details and connecting them in a way that supports ELs’ opinions and claims. Research suggests that language can grow from engaging in tasks that require higher-order thinking (Himmele & Himmele, 2009; Gottlieb, 2013).  ELs, despite their language status, can still think critically.

They may need to express it in their strongest language or with limited English, but they can be encouraged to think deeply and critically.   Check out Reading Rocket‘s website because they have devoted an entire page to teaching inferencing across content areas.  

Past Practices

When I started my career, I never explicitly taught inferencing, but rather would ask students questions after they read a text.  My questions would be inferential in nature, but students did not seem to have a way to answer them. They simply guessed at answers without going through the process of using textual evidence to support their claim. This is because I didn’t make this process explicit to them.

Current Practices

After reading Kylene Beers’ book, When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers 6-12, I now use a scaffolded approach to help students master inferencing.  Her book was incredibly helpful in developing strategies to support all students – including ELs – because she shared practical strategies that are easily implemented.  I used Beers’ book with a “diagnose-read-apply” approach.  Although I did read the book from cover to cover, I could easily flip to a chapter, quickly read it, and then applied the strategies the next day.

Strategy: It Says – I Say – So

Beers utilizes a three-part structure to help internalize the process of making inferences. She breaks a complicated task into manageable units of thinking. Below are her  steps.

1. Create an inferential question

Inferential questions require searching for answers that are not explicitly stated in the text but can be reasonably supported by textual evidence.  After reading a text, I ask ELs inferential questions about the ideas presented.   

I will use an NPR article that we read in my 7th grade English class as an example about how the coral reefs are dying due to the changes in the ocean’s chemistry.

 After reading 4-5 paragraphs, I asked students “What does a coral reef need to be healthy?”

2. Identify the “It Says”

In the second phase of the structure, I send my ELs back to the text to carefully re-read for textual details that can answer the inferential question.  This step in the process honors the central pillar of close reading: returning to the text to look for details.  This step also helps ELs learn the value of re-reading, which is a habit proficient readers possess. A detail from the coral reef article that ELs can use as evidence to form their claim is:

When you look at the chemistry of the oceans, the carbon dioxide is already making a measurable change. It reacts with seawater and turns into carbonic acid, and has made the oceans 30 percent more acidic than they were before the industrial revolution (Harris, 2013).


If you are working within the Common Core Standards and want to learn more about close reading, the definitive go-to expert is Dave Stuart Jr.  He has written a called “The Non-Freak Out, Focused Approach to The Common Core
.

3. Add “I Say”

In this third step in the structure, ELs interpret the meaning of the textual detail they have identified.  In other words, students are gathering textual-based evidence. In the excerpt above, ELs might say:

– Carbon dioxide is changing the ocean’s chemistry.

– CO2 produces carbonic acid when it reacts with seawater.

– Carbonic acid makes the ocean more acidic.

– The ocean’s chemistry is 30% more acidic than before the industrial revolution.

4. End with”And So”

Beers’ final step in forming inferences encourages ELs to make a claim or an opinion that can be supported by the text. Based on the sample question for the coral reef article, a response might be:

To be healthy, coral reefs need the amount of carbon dioxide to be at a certain level.  Too much CO2 can cause the water to be too acidic. If too much CO2 is a bad thing, then too little might also be harmful for the coral reef.  CO2 has to be at a particular level for the coral reef to be healthy. 

Additional Resources

If you would prefer a PDF graphic organizer of Beer’s It Says, I Say, So structure, Reading Rocket has provided such a resource here.

Odell Education is another resource that is also helpful in developing ELs’ inferencing skills while also following Beer’s structure.  Odell Education produces a CCSS-aligned literacy curriculum and offers an editable PDF of the structure so that ELs can have an electronic version.

Takeaways

1.ELs can learn academic skills.

2.Inferencing is an essential academic skill and life skill.

3.Structures and scaffolds can be used to teach ELs to acquire academic skills.

Next Post

Thank you for spending time reading this post.  I hope the information will be helpful in supporting your ELs to master the skill of inferencing.  Please leave comments and questions below.

The Visible Literacy series consists of articles about reading, writing, and vocabulary.  This article concludes the articles about reading instruction.  My next two posts will be about writing instruction, and I will share a routine to help students talk collaboratively about the text to construct meaning and analyze its ideas and concepts.  

This routine simultaneously teaches students to be close readers and to be effective, receptive communicators. If I was asked to teach pre-service educators only one structure, it would be this process.  Stay tuned!

Helping ELLs Make Inferences

Bibliography

Beers, K. (2003). When kids can’t read: What teachers can do. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann.

Cummins, J. (1991). Language Development and Academic Learning. In L. Malave &

G. Duquette (Eds.), Language, Culture and Cognition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Cummins, J. & McNeely, S. (1987). Language Development, Academic Learning, and

Empowering Minority Students. In K. Tikunoff (Ed.), Bilingual Education and Bilingual Special Education: A Guide for Administrators. Boston: College Hill.

Gottlieb, M. (2013). Essential Actions: A Handbook for Implementing WIDA’s  

Framework for English Language Development Standards. Madison: Board of Regents of the U of Wisconsin System.

Harris, R. (2013, April 4). This Scientist Aims High To Save The World’s Coral Reefs.

Retrieved November 12, 15, from http://www.npr.org/2013/04/22/176344300/this-scientist-aims-high-to-save-the-worlds-coral-reefs

Himmele, P., & Himmele, W. (2009). e language-rich classroom: A research-based

framework for teaching English language learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Marzano, R. (2010). Teaching inference. Educational Leadership, 67(7), 80-81.

Retrieved from  http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr10/vol67/num07/Teaching-Inference.aspx.

Middle years programme language acquisition guide. (2014). Geneva: International

Baccalaureate Program.

Short, D., Echevarría, J., & Richards-Tutor, C. (2011). Research on academic literacy

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