Teaching Comprehension: Referents, Dialogue, and

InferenceEDC424

Dr. Terry Deeney

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Why do we care about inferring?

• GLEs

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Kindergarten Reading GLEs

Expository Text• R-K-8.3: Making basic inferences

Comprehension Strategies• R-K-13: Use comprehension strategies

(flexibly and as needed) while listening to literary or informational text. Examples of reading comprehension strategies might include: Making simple text-based inferences.

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Grade 1 Reading GLEsNarrative Text• R-1-5.3: Making basic inferences about the text

Expository Text• R-1-8.3: Making basic inferences or drawing basic

conclusions

Comprehension Strategies• R-1-13: Use comprehension strategies (flexibly and as

needed) while listening to literary or informational text. Examples of reading comprehension strategies might include: Making text-based inferences.

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Grade 2 GLEsNarrative Text• R-2-5.3: Making basic inferences about problem or solution• R-2-5.6: Identify motives of main characters• R-2-8.3: Making basic inferences or drawing basic

conclusionsExpository Text• R-2-8.5: Making inferences about causes or effects, when

signal words are present. Comprehension Strategies• R-2-13: Use comprehension strategies (flexibly and as

needed) while listening to literary or informational text. Examples of reading comprehension strategies might include: Making text-based inferences.

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Grade 3 GLEsNarrative Text• R-3-5.3: Making basic inferences about problem, conflict,

or solution (e.g. cause/effect relationships)Expository Text• R-3-8.3: Making basic inferences, drawing basic

conclusions, or forming judgments about central ideas that are relevant.

• R-3-8.5: Making inferences about causes or effects. Comprehension Strategies• R-2-13: Use comprehension strategies (flexibly and as

needed) while listening to literary or informational text. Examples of reading comprehension strategies might include: Making text-based inferences.

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Mathematics GLEsGrades K-2• M(PRP)-2.2: Students will use mathematical

reasoning and proof and be able to:– Draw conclusions using inductive reasoning

Grades 3-5• -M(PRP)-5-2: Students will use mathematical

reasoning and proof and be able to:– Draw conclusions and solve problems using

elementary deductive reasoning and reasoning by analogy.

– Make and defend conjectures and generalizations.

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Inferring: A Skill or Strategy?

• Skills– Automatic– Effortless– Used without

conscious control

• Strategies– Conscious activity

to achieve desired goal

– Not automatic– Can, with practice,

become skills

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What kind of inferences?Drawing text and background knowledge together: Basic

Reggie began to tell a ghost story: “Once there was this ghost and he lived in a haunted house

only he did most of the haunting himself. This house was empty except for this ghost because nobody wanted to go near this house, they were so afraid of this ghost. And every night this ghost would walk around this house and make all kinds of clunky, creeky sounds. Aroomp! Aroomp!”

• How does Ira feel right now?– Author: Reggie is telling Ira a ghost story in bed at nighttime.– Student BK: Ghost stories are scary; dark can be scary.

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Drawing text and background knowledge together: More difficult

Stellaluna quickly clambered from the nest and hung out of sight below it. She listened to the babble of the three birds.

“What was that?” cried Flip.“I don’t know, but it’s hanging by its feet,” chirped Flitter.

• How do the birds feel about this thing they found hanging by its feet?- Author: emphasizes “that,” hanging by its feet.

- Student BK: italics means stress, in this case something is odd; birds do not hang by their feet; birds would not know what was hanging by its feet; birds and bats have different habits.

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Inferences based on two parts of the text: Basic

“Hello,” said Verdi. “Do you want to climb trees with me?” “I’m tired,” Dozier growled. “Go do a few laps around the jungle Okay?”

• Are the Greens going to climb trees with Verdi? - Text 1: Verdi asks Greens to play- Text 2: Dozier tells Verdi that he is tired- Text 3: Dozier tells Verdi to do laps

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• Inferences based on two parts of the text: More complex:

“And now that you have been here a few weeks, I’m going to leave you in charge for a few days while I go over the mountain to get the rest of my equipment. Now sit down and listen carefully while I explain how to run everything.”

• How will things go for Big Anthony when Strega Amelia is away?- Beginning of story: Big Anthony does not pay attention.

- Current: Strega Amelia tells Anthony to listen to what she has to say. Anthony will be in charge while Strega

Amelia is away.

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What do referents and dialogue have to do with inferring?

• It’s hard to infer when you don’t know who is talking or what they are talking about.

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“That’s weird,” said Annie. “I don’t hear any birds.”

She was right. The grove was strangely silent.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Jack. “Maybe they’re all at the beach.”

• What does Annie think is weird? • Why is that weird? • Who is at the beach?

Mary Pope Osborne (1998). Vacation Under the Volcano. New York: Scholastic, p. 15-16.

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I never raised my hand to answer a question, but when Miss Stickley called on me, I had to say something. My English wasn’t perfect yet, so Elizabeth always giggled at whatever I said. Miss Stickley would stare at her, and then she’d shut up.

• What does Elizabeth think of the narrator’s English?

• How does Mrs. Stickley react to the narrator’s situation?

.

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Anaphoric Relations• Associations between words where one

word or group of words is used in place of another word or group of words.

• Antecedent or referent/substitution

Example:

We just got a new puppy. That ball of energy is taking over our lives.

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Good primary literature authors try to clarify referents:

Toad read a long story to his seeds. All the next day Toad sang songs to his

seeds. And all the next day Toad read poems to

his seeds. And all the next day Toad played music to

his seeds. Toad looked at the ground. The seeds still

did not start to grow.

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But referents are hard to avoid:“Drat!” said Toad.“My seeds have not started to grow.They must be afraid of the dark.”Toad went out to his garden with some candles. “I will read the seeds a story,” said Toad. Then they will not be afraid.”Lobel, A. (1971), “The Garden.” In Frog and Toad Together. New York: Harper Collins, p. 24.

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And may be more challenging in expository text:• Some trees have long thin leaves that look like needles.

(Picture of evergreen trees in summer)• Pine trees and fir trees have needles like this. (Picture of

pine branches/needles)• These trees stay green all year long.

(Picture of evergreens in winter)

How do students know that:• trees that stay green all year long are the same trees as

what they saw before?• trees that stay green are pine and fur trees?• trees that stay green have needles?

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Dialogue

• The speaker within a text is not always clearly marked (e.g. “said John”)

• Sometimes it’s hard to figure out who is talking when more than one speaker is involved in conversation if the text is not clearly marked.

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Dialogue is more clearly marked in primary literature:

Toad knocked at the door.

“Hello,” said Frog.

“Look at my list

of things to do,”

said Toad.

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But not perfectly:

Toad said, “My list tells me

that we will go for a walk.”

“All right,” said Frog.

“I am ready.”

Who is ready? How do you know?

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And we might not know how the dialogue relates to actions:

“Strega Nona, Strega Nona,” Bambalona and Big Anthony called, out of breath.

“What is it, my children?” Strega Nona asked.“You’ll never guess. Read this!” Bambalona

handed Strega Nona a handbill.

What does being out of breath have to do with handing her a handbill?

.

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Stop and Think:

Besides marking the speaker with words like said, cried, etc., how does a text help identify the speaker?

Teaching Referents, Dialogue, and Inferring

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A Good Reader:• Knows many strategies

– Activating prior knowledge– Setting purpose– Questioning– Predicting– Summarizing– Visualizing– Clarifying– Inferring– Making connections– Integrating information– Using graphics – Using context– Adjusting rate

• Knows how and when to use strategies– Internalizes these

cognitive processes:• Activating• Focusing• Selecting• Organizing• Integrating• applying

– Becomes independent

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Strategy Knowledge• Declarative knowledge

– Knowing “that” there are strategies– Knowing “what” strategies are available

• Procedural knowledge– Knowing “how” to use strategies

• Conditional knowledge– Knowing “when” to use strategies

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Implicit vs. Explicit Instruction• Implicit instruction

– “Telling” students they should be using the strategy without telling them what, how, why, when

– “Does that make sense?” How does a student:

• Know what “makes sense” means

• Know whether the text makes sense

• Know what to do if it doesn’t make sense

• Explicit instruction– Explaining – Modeling– Gradual Release

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Teaching “What”

• Explain– Tell students what the strategy is– Tell students why/how it is helpful

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Teaching “How”• Model

– Use the strategy yourself, making your thinking apparent (“think out loud”)

• Provide guided practice– Give students a chance to use the strategy with

your help– Provide gradual release of responsibility

• Provide independent practice– Give students a chance to use the strategy on

their own

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Teaching “When”

• Explain when the strategy is helpful

• Provide opportunities to think about when during guided practice

• Scaffold students’ identification of strategy need as they read

Clarifying for Ourselves: An Example

Teaching students to clarify referents

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Explain:• I want to talk to you about some words that we see a lot in

texts that we read: I, you, he, she, we, me, him, her, us, it, they, them.

• Did you ever stop to think about what the words I just wrote mean? Let’s take out the ones we can tell easily what they mean. (I, you, me, us)

• Now let’s look at the other ones. Who is he? What does they mean? Well, it depends.

• Sometimes when we’re reading a book, we come across these kinds of words (point) and we might not know what these words mean. They kind of disguise who or what the book is talking about.

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• These words are called pronouns, but I call them disguising words because they are talking about someone or something else, but they don’t say exactly who or what.

• When we see a disguising word in our reading, we know that the word is talking about something or someone else. It’s a word that stands for something else. So we need to know what that something or someone else is.

• Like this from our story, The Snowy Day:

After breakfast he put on his snowsuit and ran outside.

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• He is this story is Peter, and his is Peter’s.• We knew that because the story is mostly all

about Peter, so who else could he be?• But what if the story had lots of people and lots

of things? Maybe we wouldn’t be so sure.• I’m going to show you how I might figure out

what one of our disguising words is talking about.

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Model

Toad baked some cookies.

“These cookies smell very good,” said Toad.

He ate one.

“And they taste even better,” he said.

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• I’m going to make sure I know what my disguising words mean.

• I know that Toad is the only character in the story so far. I know that Toad baked the cookies. So when the text says, “He ate one,” I know it’s Toad. But just to be sure, I’m going to trade “he” for “Toad” and see if that makes sense.

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Guided Practice

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Teaching students to clarify dialogue

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Teaching students to infer

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Explain• Sometimes when we read we’re supposed to figure

things out that are tricky. Authors sometimes give us clues and we need to think about how the clues go together – we need to learn something that’s not said exactly.

• Sometimes we are asked questions that we need to think about based on what we read. The answer isn’t exactly given in the text, but we can use what the text says to figure it out.

• When we think about what the text is telling us, but not telling us in exact words, we are “inferring.”

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ModelThe guards started toward them. Annie whipped her

flashlight out of the pack.

“Ta-da!” she yelled.

The guards froze. They stared at the shiny flashlight in her hand.

Annie switched the light on. The guards gasped in fear. They jumped back against the wall.

Squinty dropped the torch. It fell into a dirty puddle on the floor, sputtered, and went out.

“My magic wand!” Annie said, waving the flashlight. “Get down or I’ll wipe you out !”

Jacks mouth dropped open.

Annie fiercely pointed her light at one, then the other. Each howled and covered his face.

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• Wow. The guards are really afraid of Annie’s flashlight. I’m wondering why would they be afraid of a flashlight?

• The text doesn’t tell me why, exactly. So I need to think about what the book has told me already.

- It told me that the castle was lit by torches.

- It said that the knights used torches to see in the dark.• I know what a torch is – it’s a long stick with a flame, like

a big candle, that you can use like a light. • So I think that back in the days of the knights, they must

have used torches for lights.

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• Now I’m going to use this information that I know to figure out what I don’t know.

- Torches lit up castles, and knights used torches to see their way.

- Annie had a flashlight.

- The knights were afraid of the flashlight. • My guess is that back in the days of the knights, they only had

torches, not electric lights or flashlights.• They probably had never seen a flashlight before! That’s why they

were afraid!• I made an inference about why the knights were so frightened. I

could figure it out even though Mary Pope Osborne didn’t tell me right out.

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Provide for Guided Practice• Let’s look at this sentence in this text for a

minute:– The more weight you lift, the bigger your muscles get.

• That’s telling us something directly, right? We know that the more weight we lift, the bigger our muscles will get. But how about if I ask you this question:– Bob and Susan’s muscles were the same size in

November. Now Bob’s muscles are smaller than Susan’s muscles. What does this tell us about Bob’s weightlifting?

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Provide for Independent Practice

• Now I want you to try it on your own. Here are some passages in our latest Jack and Annie book.

• On the left side I put what the book says. On the right side, you need to write what that tells you.

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The text says:

“What’s wrong with her, Jack wondered. Usually I’m the worried one.”

This tells me: