Authors craft their stories like puzzles, and it is the reader's job to put together the clues to find the meaning. Making inferences -- looking at the clues and making educated assumptions about them -- is like reading between the lines to catch the meaning of single words or the big picture. For example, after reading, "When it healed, and Jem's fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury," from Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," the reader may infer that assuaged means calmed or lessened and that the character Jem's biggest concern is playing football.
Good readers naturally assign mental images to stories they read, helping them to recall information and enhance their understanding. However, struggling eighth graders may benefit from drawing their own versions of characters to familiarize themselves with this strategy. The character Dill from "To Kill a Mockingbird" is described as "a curiosity ... his hair was snow white, he was a year my senior but I towered over him. As he told us the old tale, his blue eyes would lighten and darken." By drawing Dill, readers remember him as this small and curious boy, which will ultimately help them understand how Lee crafted him to represent childhood innocence.
Eighth-grade readers encounter concepts and topics in literature that may seem foreign to them, but they may know more than they think. Prior knowledge, personal experience and other texts serve as resources for making meaningful connections. For example, reading a text about the American South during the mid-1900s or information about racial tensions during that period before approaching "To Kill a Mockingbird" will help readers better understand points in the novel. More sophisticated connections that readers can make include other trials in which the innocent are punished or even personal experiences with prejudice.
Determining importance is a skill that eighth graders must utilize during standardized tests in all subject areas. Readers can approach almost any text, even difficult research articles, if they can distinguish between essential and non-essential information. Summarizing or creating outlines or lists help students practice determining importance. If readers can write a comprehensive summary or list that touches upon all of the key points of a text, they have mastered the skill. Highlighting important parts of a text lets them practice and utilize this strategy as well.
Information on the Internet, the news and in the classroom bombards eighth-grade students. While not every text should or can serve as a resource for a school paper, their merit can be determined through evaluation and analysis. For example, readers may note that an article designed to persuade a school district to ban the reading of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is written in first person and lacks evidence. Considering this information, readers can come to their own opinions about the topic or issue.