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Interactive Games on Making Inferences

Making inferences is a natural part of interpreting a text. Readers make observations based on the data the text provides. Then they bring their own prior knowledge of the world and similar, familiar situations to the text and draw inferences. The quality, strength and validity of these inferences are always based on the strength of the observations on which the inferences must be based. Observations are noticeable facts that any careful reader would agree on. Inferences are interpretations based on the text but are more subjective.
  1. Collect Magazine Pictures

    • Collect and laminate magazine pictures that contain images of people doing things in a wide variety of environments. They could be sitting at a table in a restaurant. Perhaps they are competing in a soccer game. Others are in a small boat in the middle of the lake fishing with a rod and reel. All the pictures should be colorful and full of action and background details.

    Form Teams

    • Divide the group or class into teams of four to six. Have students count off by number or by letter. One student or team member will write down his team's responses. The clue giver has one minute to make as many observations as possible about the team's picture. The team makes a list of as many inferences they can draw based on the observation. For example, the clue giver says, "I see a girl wearing a thick scarf over her face." The group responds, "She is cold" or "It is winter" as the inference drawn from the scarf. After the minute, the groups stop writing.

    Scoring

    • Each group then reads their list of inferences while the other groups keep their cards face-down to avoid cheating. If the answer is an inference and not an observation, the team is awarded a point. Each team totals the number of inferences they were able to draw. The one with the most points wins.

    Novel Ideas Only

    • Another variation allows groups to respond to different pictures, and they draw their picture from the face-down pile. Some leaders like to count points by reading the list of answers. If another team also answered the same inference, then both eliminate that response from their list. The team with the remaining greatest number of unique answers wins.

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