INFER:To make meaning by adding what you know (schema)

to what you read (text).

An inference is like a BUILDING:

Pieces from the TEXT are bricks.Pieces from your SCHEMA

(background knowledge) are the mortar.

Bricks (text info) without mortar (your schema) are

too weak to make an solid inference.

Inferences without both

text & schema

fall flat.

A good inference is always

supported by text info (bricks) plus

schema (mortar).

When you read:

“Dad told me that I’d be fine as long as I never depended on anybody but myself…He said the

government was after us ever since I could remember… The shelter we lived in was set

miles into a forest…a place no person besides us had any cause to be.”

(Alabama Moon, Watt Key)

What does the text tell you?(just the ‘bricks’--only the text)

We have text info (the bricks) let’s add schema (our mortar).

What do we think we know about…

-people who think independence is important?

-people who think the government is after them?

-people who live out in the woods?

-a place where nobody else has a reason to be?

-fathers and sons?

Now that we have our text and schema, lets put these bricks and mortar together to make

some inferences:

Inferences with good text (brick)& schema (mortar) support

stand on their own.