Inference: When do we use it in our learning?...

Having unpacked and explored the comprehension strategy of inference during reading lessons I wanted my target students to be able to tap into this learning and use their inferencing skills during our maths lesson. As a scaffold for these students I asked my whole class to remind me of when we use inferencing skills in our learning. What completely shocked me was that not one person could answer this question. Incase there was a confusion between inferencing and inference I asked my students what inference was. Again no one could give me an answer! I used a variety of DATS (direct acts of teaching) to prompt a response but still no one gave me a correct response. Thinking on my feet, I recited the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill then asked my learners two questions. 

1. Was Jack a boy or a girl? 
2. How old was Jack? 

When the answers were given I asked, 'How do you know?' I was told that Jack is a boy's name so we can assume he's a boy, and he's young because in all the books they have a little kid drawn. I then cast a written version to the TV and asked everyone to talk to their buddy and show them where this information was in the text. One student said 'We can't Miss because it's not there.' I then explained it isn't written in the text because there are enough clues in the words (and images) for us to logically guess this information. 

I think my learners were thrown by my question because we always talk about inference and respond to inferential questions during our guided reading sessions, but on this occasion I asked them a reading based question during our maths learning time. Unfortunately none of my learners were able to knowingly transfer learning from one context to another. 

We then looked at the maths question: 

197 adults and 152 children were on the afternoon flight from Christchurch to Auckland. If 176 of the people that boarded the plane are male, how many are female? 

In pairs I asked my learners to read the question aloud then reread it and find the maths. Once they had the numbers to work with I asked them to decided were they being asked to find a sum or an addend. When that had been established I asked them to use what they already knew to decide which number operation would be the best choice to help them find the answer. Alongside each step we revisited the fact that we were inferring (ie: using the clues given with our prior knowledge to help us find the answer). 

What began as a scaffolding strategy evolved into a deep dive into a learning experience full of rich discussion for all my learners that I hope to build on to strengthen the connections between inference in reading and inference in maths.