Main content
4th grade reading & vocabulary
Course: 4th grade reading & vocabulary > Unit 3
Lesson 2: Close reading: informational text- Making inferences in informational texts | Reading
- Summarizing nonfiction | Reading
- What language shows cause and effect? | Reading
- The structures of informational texts | Reading
- Evaluating a source’s reasoning and evidence
- Journeys West: reading informational text; Migrations to the West 4
© 2023 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Making inferences in informational texts | Reading
Inferences are conclusions we make based on clues in a piece of writing. They're more than guesses but not just observations. Become a reading detective by developing your ability to search for clues in the text and combine them with your own knowledge!
Want to join the conversation?
- shouldn't they make khan Academy mugs right? vote up for yes vote down for no.(185 votes)
- We can all agree that David is the most interesting and funny teacher right?(168 votes)
- Do we always needed to make an inference from the text?(59 votes)
- Hello,
An inference is an idea the reader can draw while you're reading the text using existing data. So, yes, readers are always inferring, even if you don't realize it.
Since inference is all about understanding what is happening in the text, yes, it's good to infer. To answer your question: yes. It helps your understanding and development as a reader.
Hope this helps!(78 votes)
- should they make a khan acadamy mugs upvote for yes downvote for no(70 votes)
- Yes they should and I agree(3 votes)
- vote me if he is a good drawer.(56 votes)
- Erm its artist not drawer 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄(0 votes)
- You should become a teacher vote if you think he would be a good teacher(43 votes)
- vote up if you like they should make Khan Academy mench(28 votes)
- Merch not mench(11 votes)
- Okay I like dis dude.
Not weirdly.(27 votes)- Yeah I like him too also if you like him (not in a weird way) he also does grammar courses on khan academy.(3 votes)
- this guy is so good at drawing, please let him be my teacher(19 votes)
- he needs to be my lang arts teacher.(6 votes)
- I still dont get it, what exactly is a inference, where, when, and how do you make one?(8 votes)
- An inference is a prediction that we can make based off of existing data and our reasoning. You would make one to understand implicit ideas in texts. For example, if Usnavi screams in terror every time he sees tabby cats, you might make an inference that Usnavi had a traumatic experience with tabby cats in the past, or that he was misinformed about some "dangers" of tabby cats. Even if the author of the text doesn't outright go and say "When he was little, a feral tabby cat bit Usnavi on the arm, leaving a horrible scar", you still get the idea and are able to connect the data of Usnavi screaming and your prior knowledge of why people scream in terror, as well as your knowledge that the average tabby cat doesn't appear to be dangerous to the average human.(26 votes)
Video transcript
- [David] From the moment
she strolled into my office, I could tell she was gonna be a difficult sentence to read. You could tell from the way she walked she was carrying a lot of information, but getting it out of
her wouldn't be easy. I was gonna need to make an inference. Hey, what's up readers? David here. I'm taking advantage
of the cold that I have by doing my serious detective voice in order to teach you about inferences. (phone ringing) Hold on, let me get that. Hi, this is David. I'm in the middle of doing a video. Now isn't a great time. - [Man On Phone] Hello,
I have information about what an inference is. - [David] Oh, oh that's great. Cool, follow me over to the next screen. What is an inference, please? - [Man On Phone] An inference
is a conclusion that you make based on clues given
in a piece of writing. It's more than a guess, but it's not just an observation either. - [David] Great, thank you. Was that all you needed? - [Man On Phone] Yeah,
that was my only thing. - [David] All right, thanks, bye. - [Man On Phone] Goodbye. - [David] So an inference is a conclusion that you draw from writing. It's an idea that you pull from a sentence or a passage that isn't
literally printed there. It's the detective work of reading, finding clues that help you make sense of what's being said. I feel like we're kind of getting bogged down in theory
land so let's take a look at an example. I went outside and made
an enormous snow fort. There's my snow fort. It's a D on the flag to represent me. There's me little hot cocoa, couple marshmallows floating in there, my Khan Academy mug. They don't make Khan Academy mugs. I want a Khan Academy mug. Okay, so what conclusions can we draw from these two sentences? I went outside and made
an enormous snow fort. Beautiful, brilliant, enormous. Then I came inside and had
a big mug of hot chocolate. Same deal, brilliant, beautiful, enormous. What conclusions can I
draw about this situation? Well if you're making things out of snow and then you're coming inside
and having hot chocolate, it's probably not the height of summer. One inference that I can draw from these two sentences together is that it is winter time when
this sentence takes place. Where I live, these are not activities that one pursues in the
height of summer outside. I'm looking for clues within the text. Snow fort, I'm outside, I came inside and then I had hot chocolate which is not traditionally a beverage that is consumed when it's warm out. Let's take a look at another example. This paragraph is part of a longer passage that is about a young ballet
dancer named Michaela. Michaela danced so wonderfully that she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theater. That was only the beginning
of her dancing success. When she was 17, Michaela danced with the Dance Theater of Harlem
professional company. Later, she joined the Dutch
National Junior Company. Today, Michaela is a soloist
with the Dutch National Ballet. So very quickly without getting bogged down in this passage, what are some conclusions,
what are some inferences that we can draw about Michaela? Who is Michaela? What do we know about her? We know that she's a dancer. We know that she's very good at it, right? She danced so wonderfully
that she got a scholarship. So I'm gonna say Michaela is very talented and we know that her talent led to success because her getting the scholarship was only the beginning
of her dancing success. We can see from the passage
that she was part of at least three different dance companies, the Dance Theater of Harlem, the Dutch National Junior Company, and as a soloist with the
Dutch National Ballet today. So I'm gonna say that Michaela
is a very hard worker. Now notice no where in
the passage does it say Michaela is a very talented,
hard working dancer. Just like in the previous example, it didn't say, it was winter outside so I made a snow fort. What the skill of inference is requires you to be a detective and take your magnifying
glass to the passage to discover clues. Imagine you're a detective like this dog. He's wearing a little deer stalker cap. Let's call him, let's
call him Sherlock Bones, the famous dog detective
that I just made up. I feel like Sherlock Holmes
is always smoking a pipe so I'm gonna give this dog like a, I don't know a bone or a
piece of rawhide or something. Imagine that you are a
detective or a dog detective if you like and every
time you read a text, let's say a book, that you are searching for clues within it. What you're doing when
you make an inference is you are taking the
information that you already know about the world and the
places and people in it and how they behave
and what they look like and what they do and you're applying that
knowledge to the text. When do people build snowmen? When do people build snow forts? When do they drink hot cocoa? In the winter time. An important thing to remember though is that inferring is not guessing. Any time you make an inference, you have to be pulling it
directly from the text. That's your jumping off point. It can't just be a wild
guess out of no where. It comes from information that
you've got there on the page. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat my
weight in cough drops. You can learn anything, David out.