What is Inferential Reading

Getting students to read and appreciate literature is one of the most tedious tasks that a teacher has to deal with on a daily basis due to the fact that every student in the class has different interests and different learning styles. A teacher however, must be made aware that there are different strategies which they may engage in before, during and after reading in order to build student interest in reading. One such strategy is inferential reading which involves the reader response theory and also allows students to engage in critical reading.

Inferential reading, as the term implies, refers to one’s ability to make inferences and reason using their experiences in relation to the ideas presented in the text. In addition to that, the strategy involves a lot of interaction in the classroom; a teacher may use a television show, a book or a favourite sport when using this strategy.

Inferential reading allows the reader to use their prior knowledge in order to understand the ideas presented in the textbook. For example, a student may use his ideas and experiences on superstition to deduce, understand and analyse ideas in a text that are centred on the supernatural world. Moreover this strategy encourages readers to engage in critical thinking and being active in their discussions as it relates directly to their experiences. The strategy also enforces the constructivist theory in that students are responsible for building their own knowledge and constructing ideas based on their experiences. Not only that, but students infer and make predictions based on the cover page illustration and the blurb or synopsis at the back of the book. Therefore the physical layout becomes of great importance in inference because it is from this that students are able to deduce and perceive what the book is about before the actual reading process commences.

Inferential Reading takes into perspective the questioning procedure where the facilitator poses questions to students and encourages them to answer, again based on their experiences and judgement of the book based on the illustrations before they actually begin reading. Unlike other strategies, inferential reading does not require a question answer session during reading or pausing to comment on various parts of the text however it benefits the student as they learn to read more purposefully and tactfully.

Getting students to engage in this practise is advantageous to both the teacher and the student. The strategy helps students compare and contrast as well as makes associations and allusions to their lives. This allows the student to connect with the text and therefore makes it easier for them to find and identify themselves in various characters. It also makes comprehension and analysing easier for the student and helps them, according to Kylene Beers transfer those skills and strategies to their interactions with the text.

In addition, students develop skills pertinent to their understanding of both the literature and language arts. Students learn to:

• understand the intonation of characters' words and relationships to one another
• provide explanations for ideas that are presented in the text
• offer details for events or their own explanations of the events
• recognize the author's view of the world including the author's biases
• offer conclusions from facts presented in the text
• relate what is happening in the text to their own knowledge of the world

Students can also use inferential reading to help them with new or difficult vocabulary by figuring out 1) antecedents for pronouns, 2) the meaning of unknown words from context clues, and/or 3) the grammatical function of an unknown word.