Reading Strategy: Make Inferences

Notice the kinds of words the writer uses to give information. Try this strategy to find and track clues as you read.

Reading Strategy: Make Inferences
    How to Make Inferences

  • 1. Notice what the narrator says and how she says it.

  • 2. Think about your own experiences. Use them to make an inference.

  • 3. Write your ideas on a sticky note and put it next to the text.

  • 4. Notice how your ideas about the narrator change as you read on.

Strategy in Action

Here’s how one student made inferences.

Look Into the Text

Dear Mimmy,

Zlata names her diary. I think it’s like a trusted friend.

I’m trying to concentrate so I can do my homework (reading), but I simply can’t. Something is going on in town. You can hear gunfire from the hills. Columns of people are spreading out from Dobrinja. They’re trying to stop something, but they themselves don’t know what. You can simply feel that something is coming, something very bad. On TV I see people in front of the B-H parliament building. The radio keeps playing the same song: “Sarajevo, My Love.”

Zlata repeats the word “something.” I can tell she’s confused and worried.

Practice Together

Reread the passage from “Zlata’s Diary.” Follow the steps in the How-To box to make an inference.