Inferences
You see a character walk inside, shake a soaking wet umbrella, and sigh while looking at the gray sky. What can you infer about the weather?
What is It is raining?
What do the letters R.A.C.E stand for?
What is R for restate, A for answer, C for cite evidence, E for explain?
This is a short retelling of the main points of a story that does not include the reader's personal opinion.
What is a summary?
Language that is not meant to be taken literally.
What is figurative language?
The narrator's position in relation to a story being told.
What is Point of View?
This term refers to an idea or conclusion that's drawn from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements.
What is an Inference?
Turn this question into a "Restate & Answer" opening sentence: "How does the protagonist show bravery in Chapter 1?"
What is "The protagonist shows bravery in Chapter 1 by [insert answer here]."?
A strong summary must include the "Main Idea" and these—the specific pieces of information that show the main idea is true.
What are the key details or supporting details?
The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
What is onomatopoeia?
The narrator is a character within the story (using I, me, my, we)
What is 1st person?
To make a valid inference, a reader must combine clues from the text with this—stuff you already know from your own life experiences.
What is Background Knowledge (or Schema)?
Give a better sentence starter to introduce that evidence. A student writes:
The character is upset about the lost dog. The book said he cried.
What is "According to the text," or "The author explicitly states..."?
SBAC questions often ask you to choose the "best" summary. The best choice is the one that covers the beginning, middle, and this.
What is the end or resolution?
When you compare to unlike things using the words like or as.
What is a simile?
An author writes a speech trying to convince the school board to start lunch 30 minutes later. Identify the Author's Purpose.
What is To Persuade?
"Leo's stomach did somersaults as he stood backstage holding his violin. He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants for the tenth time." Infer Leo's internal state.
What is He is nervous/anxious?
You use exact words from the text without quotation marks
What is plagiarism?
When summarizing a story, you should focus on the "Conflict" and how the characters do this to reach the end of the story.
What is resolve it?
Giving an object or an animal human traits.
What is personification?
In a Third-Person Omniscient story, the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of how many characters?
What are all the characters?
If an inference is not supported by Direct Evidence from the text, it is considered this.
What is a guess?
If a student provides a perfect quote but doesn't write anything after that. What common teacher feedback would you get?
What is "The evidence is not connected to the claim" or "Missing analysis"?
Read the following summary of a story: "In the myth of Icarus, a young boy ignores his father’s warnings and flies too close to the sun, causing his wax wings to melt. The boy was very foolish for not listening. He falls into the sea and drowns." > Identify the specific sentence that must be removed to make this a perfect summary, and explain why.
Sentence: "The boy was very foolish for not listening." Reason: This is an opinion (judgment).
Read these two descriptions of the same room:
"The old floorboards groaned under my feet like a tired animal."
"The sunlight danced across the polished floorboards." Identify the two types of figurative language used.
What are Personification and Simile?
An author writes a manual titled "The Hidden Life of Bees." While the book provides facts about hives, the author includes vivid, emotional stories about "brave" bees to make the reader care about saving them. Identify the two purposes the author has in this text.
What are To Inform (providing facts) and To Persuade (encouraging the reader to save them)?