Inferences and the Evidence for Them

1. Display the passage and read it aloud once: "Leo zipped his jacket over the cardboard tube before he stepped outside. At the bus stop he stood with his back to the wind, hunched around the tube like a turtle around its shell. His sneakers squelched in the puddles, but he did not look down at them once. On the bus he wiped the tube with his sleeve and peeked inside at the rolled-up poster. 'Still dry,' he whispered, and let out a long breath."
2. Hand out six statements: "Leo's sneakers squelched." / "It was raining." / "Leo carried a cardboard tube." / "Leo was worried about the poster." / "Leo whispered 'Still dry.'" / "The poster is for a school project." Pairs sort them under two headings on the board: "Stated" and "Inferred."
3. Check: 1, 3 and 5 are stated — you can put your finger on the words. 2 and 4 are inferred — true, but nowhere written. Statement 6 is the useful argument: nothing in the passage points to school at all. Label it "Guess" and leave it on the board; it comes back in the close.

“Both columns can be true. Only one of them is on the page. If you can put your finger on the words, it is stated.”

1. Write the inference on the board: "Leo was worried about the poster getting wet." Ask: "Is that sentence anywhere in the passage?" No — so it is an inference, and an inference owes the reader evidence.
2. Highlight one detail together: "hunched around the tube like a turtle around its shell." Ask: "Is one enough?" Fish for the objection: he might just be cold. One detail can be explained another way, which is why it is only a hunch.
3. Find a second detail: "Still dry," he whispered, and let out a long breath. Ask what a long breath after "still dry" means — relief, and you only feel relief if you were worried. Now explain both details another way. The class should struggle, and that struggle is the point: two details pointing the same way are much harder to explain away.
4. Ask the disproof question: "What sentence, if it were in the passage, would prove us wrong?" Model one: "Leo swung the tube by its strap and let it bang against the bus shelter." Check the passage — nothing like it exists, so the inference stands.
5. Now write a bad inference on the board: "Leo does not care about his things." Read out "he did not look down at them once" as its support — then read "wiped the tube with his sleeve." The text contradicts it, so cross it out in front of the class. Showing an inference being withdrawn teaches that withdrawing is a reader's job, not a failure.
6. Write the frame on the board for the rest of the lesson: "I infer ___ because the text says '___' and '___.' It would be wrong if the text said ___."

“One detail is a hunch. Two details pointing the same way is an inference. And a good reader always asks: what would prove me wrong?”

1. Give pairs a second passage: "Grandma set out three plates, then put one back in the cabinet. She kept glancing at the phone on the counter. When it finally rang, she snatched it up before the second ring. 'Oh,' she said, and her shoulders dropped. 'No, that's fine. Next weekend, then.'"
2. Pairs write two inferences using the frame, each with two quoted details. Expected: "Grandma was expecting a visitor" ("set out three plates," "kept glancing at the phone") and "the visitor is not coming / she is disappointed" ("her shoulders dropped," "Next weekend, then").
3. Pairs swap sheets with the next pair, whose only job is to try to disprove one inference using a quotation. An inference survives if no quotation contradicts it.
4. Take feedback on any inference that did not survive. If a pair wrote "Grandma is angry," ask which detail says angry rather than sad — "her shoulders dropped" is a sinking feeling, not a hot one, and "that's fine" is polite.

“You are not being mean when you attack their inference. You are testing it. If it survives, it is stronger.”

1. Students complete the inference page. The passage is printed on the sheet.
2. Every answer must use the frame and show two quotations in quotation marks. Circulate and stop anyone whose "inference" can be found word for word in the text.

1. Return to warm-up statement 6, "The poster is for a school project." Ask: "Is it an inference yet?" Fish for: no, because no detail in the passage points to school — it is a guess until the text gives us evidence.