• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Teach Mama

Education and Well-being for Every Child!

  • early literacy
    • alphabet
    • beginning sounds
    • phonics
    • phonological awareness
    • read-aloud learning
    • rhyming
    • sight words
  • reading
    • books
    • comprehension
      • activating schema
      • connecting
      • inferring
      • predicting
      • questioning
      • retelling / summarizing
      • visualizing
    • concepts of print
    • environmental print
    • fluency
    • non-fiction
    • spelling
    • word building
    • word consciousness
    • vocabulary
  • writing
    • creative writing
    • grammar
    • informative writing
    • tripod grip
  • STEM
    • math
      • computation
      • counting
      • numbers
    • science
  • Activities
    • birthdays
    • cooking
      • new for us foods
    • crafts
    • foundations
      • colors
      • critical thinking
      • fine arts
      • listening
      • pretend play
      • sorting
      • speaking
    • holidays
      • new year’s
      • valentine’s day
      • president’s day
      • st. patrick’s day
      • april fool’s day
      • easter
      • mother’s day
      • teacher appreciation
      • father’s day
      • july 4th
      • halloween
      • thanksgiving
      • christmas
    • family life
      • family fun
      • giving back
      • lunchbox love notes
      • school
    • indoor activities
    • outdoor activities
  • digital literacy
    • computer time
    • iPad for learning
  • Shop
home / Blog / reading / super-important inferring during read-alouds

super-important inferring during read-alouds

This page may contain affiliate links. Learn More.

October 7, 2010 by Teach Mama 6 Comments

130 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
post contains affiliate links

 

inferring during read alouds

 

Read-alouds are the perfect time to sneak in a little bit of learning, whether you’re talking simple reading comprehension strategies, concepts of print, or word recognition.

Tonight, we rocked our nighttime read-aloud with a few more thought-provoking and difficult strategies than normal. We practiced inferring and drawing conclusions in only ten minutes.

For the last week, Cora has requested the same thing for her nighttime book: Too Many Pumpkins by Linda Arms White and illustrated by Megan Lloyd. Too Many Pumpkins is the sweet story about lonely and cranky Rebecca Estelle who loathes pumpkins only to have her yard taken over by pumpkins one season. In an attempt to rid herself of these pesky gourds, she bakes tons of pumpkin goodies and draws her entire town to her house for a pumpkin party.

My parents bought this beautiful book for the kiddos a few years back, so really, it’s one of those books we’ve read dozens and dozens of times. And it’s one of those books that I enjoy so much I don’t really mind the re-reading (and re-reading, and re-reading).

So rather than zip through the book one more time, tonight I tried to get my little sleepyheads thinking while they listened. . .

  • Inferring During Read-Alouds: Inferring is simply using background knowledge along with text clues to come to a conclusion about a topic or idea. Inferring happens every single day, dozens of times, but for many, inferring as a reading comprehension strategy is more intimidating than it needs to be.
Cora’s book of choice, Too Many Pumpkins,
set the stage for pumpkin talk and inference-making.

Inferring is nothing to be afraid of; rather, it’s something to play with and get kiddos comfortable with early in the game so that they’re able to move to bigger and more challenging synthesizing, determining importance, and summarizing down the road.

So when Cora pulled out Too Many Pumpkins for the 80th time in two weeks, I stepped back a bit and tried to look at the book a little differently than I had before. I pushed Maddy, Owen, and Cora to do a little more ‘reading between the lines’ like Harvey & Goudvis say in their 2000 Strategies That Work.

Inferring is ‘reading between the lines’ according
to Harvey & Goudvis.

When we read on the first page that when Rebecca Estelle was a child, her family ate pumpkins for every meal because ‘money was scarce’, I asked, Rebecca Estelle’s family ate pumpkins all of the time when ‘money was scarce’, so what might that tell us about pumpkins?

A tough, open-ended question for Cora and maybe Owen, but Maddy picked up on it and said, I bet you can get a lot of pumpkins for only a little money. Or something. I said, You’re right. They may have bought pumpkins for only a little money or how else do people get food?

Owen said, They make the food or get it from somebody else. Or grow it like our tomatoes in our garden.

So we ran with that and talked briefly–briefly!–about what we remembered about the veggies in our garden, and then we read on.

We stopped now and again for me to ask questions or to have Maddy, Owen, or Cora talk us through a page here or there, but the end was another great spot for making inferences.

Rebecca Estelle gave away all of her pumpkin seeds and goodies in the end, until ‘all that remained was a handful of seeds’ which ‘she tucked snugly into her pocket where they would be safe until planting time next spring’.

I asked, Why would Rebecca Estelle have kept a handful of seeds for herself if she dislikes pumpkins so much? and we talked about what she might do with the pumpkin seeds next planting season. I asked them to tell me how they knew she’d plant them (after they told me she would) and they came up with some pretty solid answers, even pointing to Rebecca Estelle’s smiling face at her pumpkin party.

It was a pretty cool–quick!–before bed chat, and Maddy, Owen, and Cora had no idea they were making inferences using a book they’ve read a million times.

Harvey and Goudvis (2000, Strategies That Work) say it best when they state, ‘Inferring is the bedrock of comprehension, not only in reading. We infer in many realms. Our life clicks along more smoothly if we can read the world as well as text. . . Inferring is about reading faces, reading body language, reading expressions, and reading tone as well as reading text.‘

It makes total sense. We use what we know to make conclusions about the world around us. Why not practice using a simple read-aloud?

Here are some prompts to consider using when helping kiddos make inferences during (or after) read-alouds:

  • How do you think the character feels about. . . ?
  • Why did the author make the title of the book _____?
  • What does the author want you to know?
  • This character’s actions show me that. . .
  • This character’s face tells me that. . .
  • What clues did the author give you to make you come to that conclusion?

Thanks to Valerie Ellery’s Creating Strategic Readers (2009) and Harvey & Goudvis’s Strategies That Work (2000) for information in this post.

Check out some more fab Valerie Ellery resources for Primary Grades and Intermediate Grades if you’d like more strategy-work freebie ideas.

You may also like every picture tells a story.

Thanks for subscribing to teachmama! Have a good one!

About the Author

Hi, I’m Patricia, an elementary teacher and reading specialist, turned homeschool mom. I also have a master's in psychology, specializing in children's issues. Read More…

Teach Mama: View My Blog Posts
Previous Post: « lowercase letter hunt and sort
Next Post: fun ways to learn spelling words »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. LLebresco says

    October 7, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    These are great suggestions. I've been practicing this a bit with my son who seems to be obsessed right now with "Officer Buckle and Gloria." It is truly amazing to see how much a book can light kids up when you read it with expression or take time to look at pictures, ask questions, etc. It usually takes me 3 times as long to get through bedtime reading than it does my husband- drives him crazy! šŸ™‚ I love bedtime reading!!

    Reply
  2. Michelle says

    October 8, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    Yes! Yes! Yes! You have a lot of readers. I hope a ton of parents take your advice.
    Creating Strategic Readers is at the top of my professional reading list now. It looks like a great book based on research.

    Reply
  3. Sarah Cooley says

    October 9, 2010 at 2:03 am

    Thanks for this. Inferring is kind of a difficult thing for me to teach. It is kind of a hard concept to explain to little kids. But reading this helped! I will be using some of the prompts you listed to help get my students thinking! Thank you!

    Reply
  4. Read Aloud Dad says

    November 1, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    Thanks for great information. I do intend to include it in my read aloud sessions with my twins.

    Very valuable indeed.

    Read Aloud Dad

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to Teach Mama!

Patricia Moore profile image

Hi, I’m Patricia, an elementary teacher and reading specialist, turned homeschool mom.

After our three kids graduated high school, I went back to school to become a marriage and family therapist who has specialized in children’s issues.

I love helping families find all the fun and deep learning possible for their children.

I’m so glad you’re here on Teach Mama and I look forward to helping you on your journey!

Search

Trending Posts

shrinky dink flag bracelet: super-cool patriotic craft

shrinky dink flag bracelet: super-cool patriotic craft

july 4 fun games from teachmama.com

july 4th activities for kids & families

july 4th funky sparkle flag pen

ringin’ in the 4th with sparkle pens and flag treats

Footer

Hi! I'm Patricia.

nice to meet you!

My family currently lives in Central Texas. A few of my favorite things include baking, teaching, and working with children.

Learn More

Sign Up for Email Updates!

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

Copyright © 2025 · Niche Theme

Copyright © 2025 Ā· Teach Mama Ā· Privacy Policy Ā· Log in

  • 3
130 shares