Reading between the lines

Ages 9 to 12 Read alone or together · about 25 minutes

Read together

Writers do not tell us everything. Good readers notice clues and work out what is not said. This is called inference.

An inference uses two things: what the text says and what you already know.

Example: “Maya grabbed her umbrella and her boots.” We infer that it is raining, or going to.

Do it

1. Read this: “The boy stared at his empty lunchbox. His stomach growled. He looked at his friend's sandwich.” What do you infer?
2. Write three short mini-stories of three sentences each, with clues but no answers.
3. Swap with a friend and write what you infer from each clue.
4. Read a Bible story, such as the lost sheep or the good Samaritan. What can we infer about each character that is not stated?

Talk about it

• What clue helped you most?
• How do you know the inference is reasonable?

For the grown-up

Inference is a key part of understanding what we read. Good questions to ask are “How do you know?” and “What in the text makes you think that?”. Be open to reasonable different inferences.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000), chapter on comprehension
• Nell K. Duke and P. David Pearson, “Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension”, in What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction, 3rd ed. (International Reading Association, 2002)

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.