Once again, another great post from learning specialist, Rosemarie Hester. The first Monday of each month she will be at the Community Bookstore for a Q&A about learning issues. According to Hester: “April 6 is the
next one. We canceled last Monday because of the snow.”
Hester wants to encourage
parents and kids to think of these hours as drop-in sessions, as well
as Q & A’s. She sends a welcoming invitation to all. “If a child wants a free problem-solving tutoring
session, we can use the time that way,” she writes.
Big news: Hester’s website is up and running. Learn more about what she does there.
Years later—and now a reading teacher myself—I have seen over and over that inferential reading is noteworthy.
Some children are able to “read between the lines” instinctively, but many need to be led through the process and given many opportunities to practice.
Inference can be demonstrated in the following way:
“The sky was blue, the breeze was warm and the buds were beginning to flower. What season is the author describing?”
An author gives clues, asks us to picture and draw conclusions. Inferences are the conclusions reader draw from clues.
Using the word “inference,” modeling how it is done and discussing examples with children will support their reading and thinking, now and for the future.