Teaching Inference

[mommymilkies]

I saw in one of the other threads that somebody stated homeschoolers were lacking in reading inference. Is that the general consensus? It's honestly something I never thought much about. We read a lot, and talk about what we read a lot. Is something more needed? Something like CLE's Reading program? I saw something about Kolbe, as well. Is something like this necessary, or what else is there out there (preferably secular or non-preachy)?

[Crimson Wife]

I have noticed that my DD struggles with the inference questions on standardized tests she has taken even though she is a very advanced reader. So I decided this semester to have her work through a test prep workbook specifically designed to practice that skill, doing one lesson per week. We hope to send her to a selective private high school and university some day, so she is going to have to do well on the standardized admissions tests.

 

The workbook I'm using with her is completely secular and from this series.

[mommymilkies]

Thanks!

[tiffanieh]

I have noticed that my DD struggles with the inference questions on standardized tests she has taken even though she is a very advanced reader. So I decided this semester to have her work through a test prep workbook specifically designed to practice that skill, doing one lesson per week. We hope to send her to a selective private high school and university some day, so she is going to have to do well on the standardized admissions tests.

 

The workbook I'm using with her is completely secular and from this series.

 

Is the teacher workbook necessary? My son struggles with this too so I definitely want to get this!!

[Crafty Mathy Mom]

We use the Reading Detective series from Critical Thinking Co. It's designed to help improve test scores in reading.

[Mom0012]

I can't speak for homeschoolers in general, but I have found that to be true for us. My son was using the McCall Crabbs comprehension book and would always score off the chart. Then, he would take the standardized tests and score at about 50%. When I looked more closely at the McCall Crabbs book, I realized the majority of the questions were recall of facts (which my son is great at) with maybe one or two inferential questions. I noticed in the test prep books, there were a lot more inferential questions than we were used to.

 

He is now using EPS Reading Comp. Through Varied Subject Matter and I like it much better, though it still doesn't have much inferential work in it. I may look at adding in Drawing Conclusions.

 

Now that I think about it, Reading Detective cd-rom from the Critical Thinking Co. seems to have a lot of inferential questions. My daughter has used that the last couple of years. I have the opposite experience with her. She doesn't do that great on Reading Detective (which does have a lot of tricky inferential questions, plus you have to underline exactly where the inference is made in the passage) and then scores very high on the IOWA.

 

Lisa

Edited February 27, 2011 by LisaTheresa

[Murmer]

The easiest way to teach inference is to model it while you are reading...so while you are reading to your dc and you see a place where you make an inference, and we all do, just say it out loud to your children. After you have done that a few time start letting them do it and they will get it eventually....then just teach them the way the tests ask them to do the same thing.

[Crimson Wife]

Is the teacher workbook necessary? My son struggles with this too so I definitely want to get this!!

 

I wasn't able to get the TM for the particular level I'm using with DD because RR was sold out of it. I haven't found that I need it because I tend to be good at spotting the answer the test designer wants.

[mommymilkies]

They don't have the grades I need for the Focus books. :(