Presidential Inferencing

We have been working for the last couple of weeks on the skill of inferencing in our reading workshop. To get ready for really intense inference work, we have made predictions and asked thick questions about the texts with which we are working. Making inferences is always one of those tricky strategies to teach--it is difficult to give a set definition and so I have found myself at times talking in circles to a group of confused faces.

At the end of last week we learned a great equation to help with this new strategy. We learned that background knowledge + text clues = an inference. Or, shorthand, BK + TC = I (Debbie Miller, you go girl). We tried out this new equation with a piece on the primary elections in this week's edition of Time for Kids. I read aloud about the Republican primary in Iowa and the results. We read that

"The day after the vote, one candidate, Michelle Bachmann, dropped out of the race."

The article didn't tell us anymore, and a couple of my ladies were up in arms. "The girl quit?!" It is so perfect when I don't even have to force a question about the text...it was so genuine! So, we used the equation!

Our background knowledge to tackle this question included: There has never been a woman president before; campaigns cost a lot of money; some women prefer to stay home with family; if someone has another job it would be too hard to keep two jobs; people quit jobs when others don't like, or agree, with them. The text clues we found were: the other candidates with their percentages of votes; the fact that Michelle Bachmann, which was listed right after we were informed that Ron Paul finished a close third.

The kiddos came up with some pretty rock-solid inferences which included
   -She did not have enough votes because not enough people agreed with her.
   -She did not want to spend any more money if she didn't think others would vote for her.
   -She would prefer to have a different job (a response from my English learning lady! Woo!)
   -She has a family and it would be too difficult to move them across the country to the White House.

We thank you, Michelle Bachmann, for even though you dropped out, you have inspired us to think critically.