Teach-Reading-and-Writing-Issue-22

T E ACH I NG T E CHN I QUE S 52 | www.teachwire.net understand that ‘this suggests’ simply means ‘this shows that’ or ‘this means’. Evidence: Two inferences This type of question requires pupils to look for evidence that supports an inference. For example, ‘How can you tell the child was upset? Give two ways.’ Pupils will need to reflect on their own understanding of what an upset child looks like and then look for clues that suggest this in the text (e.g. ‘they were crying’ or ‘they couldn’t catch their breath’). Evidence: Three inferences Teach pupils to read the question and the instructions provided carefully. If the question references the ‘whole text’ then pupils must know that the inferences or the evidence could be found anywhere across the text. Alternatively, if they are directed to a specific part of the text, they will need to focus in on that area. Evidence: impression and evidence Expose pupils to these questions early on – they are actually fairly simple and should not be feared. Teach pupils to provide, in their own words, a simple impression or opinion. Quite often, the impression box will be a one-word description, such as happy , anxious , excited , old , etc. In the evidence box, pupils just need to provide evidence from the text to support their impression. For example, if their impression was ‘it’s old’, the evidence in the text might be, ‘the walls were crumbling.’ That’s it. Summarise questions These multiple-choice questions focus not only on the events that happened in the text, but also summarise character and narrator attitudes, feelings, emotions and thoughts. To answer correctly, children will need to reflect carefully on the general emotions, thoughts, actions or tone of the characters or narrators. In lessons, prompt pupils to explain and discuss why they chose a particular option, to avoid random selection. Prediction questions Questions of this type challenge children to think beyond the text and choose the statement that best matches with what could happen next. Prediction questions encourage pupils to reflect on details stated in the text, but they also rely on our understanding of the world and our previous experiences to help us make logical or sensible predictions. Hidden MEANINGS Andrew Jennings, author of Vocabulary Ninja series, creates innovative teaching resources used by thousands of schools in the UK and abroad. vocabularyninja.co.uk Don’t underestimate the role of inference in the SATs reading comprehension paper, warns Andrew Jennings O f the 50 marks available in the Year 6 reading comprehension paper, 30–35 per cent involve inference. To get those all-important marks, it's important that children understand the different question formats – and have strategies for tackling them. Simple questions The most straightforward ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions direct pupils to specific parts of the text and guide them to make inferences and explain the reasoning behind their answers. The children might be asked ‘How do you know?’ or ‘Why did this happen…?’. Remind pupils that these questions relate to the actions or emotions of the characters in the text. Sentence inference This format provides an opportunity for pupils to zone in on a specific sentence or word in the text to draw a conclusion. It’s important for pupils to read the questions and make a logical inference based on the information provided. The children should focus on the actions and emotions, and try to draw on their own experiences to imagine how characters in the text might feel, act or think. This suggests... These multiple-choice questions often refer to the imagery and language that authors use to create an atmosphere, such as simile, metaphor and personification describing the actions or emotions of a character. Check that pupils Download free practice questions from Comprehension Ninja: Inference and Beyond for Upper KS2 at tinyurl.com/ tp-inference