Infer- to infer is to draw a conclusion
based upon evidence, facts, or premises. These facts may be provided in a
prompt or a student may have to recall previously learned material. It
means to deduce or arrive at a logical conclusion. Facts may be presented in a
cause and effect order. Behavior verbs associated
with infer are: deduce, conclude, judge, surmise,
indicate, suggest, hint, gather, interpret, reason, derive, determine,
conjecture.
TEACHING AND TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION
TIPS:
1) Reading Textbooks- most all reading/literature textbooks have sections, questions, strategies for inferring information that is not stated outright. Look in the teacher handbook or index for suggestions
2) Science Experiments- analyze data and infer meaning of statistics and observations. See the online mysteries to solve below on website section.
3) Reading for Meaning- an excellent online program from Tom Synder. Good for grades 4-8. Excellent inferring activities as well as other reading strategies. Extremely easy to use and fun for students. Very effective as a whole group activity, but also has worksheets for individual and group accountability. You can sign up for a 30 day free trial at : http://www.tomsnyder.com/
4)Great Free Websites- check these out for whole class
display or individual enrichment
-Solve a Mystery-
analyze the clues and solve the mystery! For intermediate through 8th
grade- "The Peetnik Mysteries" at http://www.superpages.com/enlightenme/superthinkers/pages/welcome.html
; For Middle School to High School - "The Mystery Spot" from Access
Excellence, focusing on science and health scenarios- http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/mspot/
5)
Inspiration and Kidspiration - Again, this
"visual thinking" program has many options to study a topic or an
idea. Use the cause and effect template to study and infer meaning from a
topic. To access templates, go to "file" then "new".
To view how other teachers have used these programs, go to http://inspiration.com/productinfo/inspiration/using_insp/index.cfm
. If you don't have access to the program in your building, remember there is a
free 30 day download option from the software company. Check it out at : http://inspiration.com/index.cfm
For more examples on how to use Inspiration in the classroom , check out
this page http://www.usd305.com/staffdev/tech%20vision/Inspiration/inspex.htm
6) Online Dictionaries-
Look up the word on online dictionaries as a whole class activity to introduce
and brainstorm ideas and activities about the word. Use the PC to TV device or
other projection system if possible. Here are some good online
dictionaries:
-Miriam Webster
seems to be the easiest and most concise http://www.m-w.com/home.htm
-Your Dictionary.com
at http://www.yourdictionary.com/
Similar to above
-Wordsmyth http://www.wordsmyth.net/live/home.php
This one is interesting... when you click on the word to see the definitions,
more sections automatically appear, which could give ideas for instruction or
activities - such as synonyms, similar words, examples in a sentence, etc.
-One Look (
searches for the word in a multitude of different online dictionaries)
http://www.onelook.com
For more ideas or help using any of these computer programs or websites, please contact your technology resource teachers: