THE CHILDREN'S BOOK ACADEMY
  • Home
    • THOH KidLit Creative Retreat
  • WRITING
    • Craft & Business of Writing Childrens Picture Books
    • The Chapter Book Alchemist
    • New!! Middle Grade Mastery Instant Access
    • Mastering Graphic Novels
    • 2022 Kidlit Palooza >
      • 2022 Palooza Program
      • 2022 Palooza Faculty
  • ILLUSTRATION
    • NEW!! Craft & Business of Illustrating Children's Books Instant Access
    • Never a Dull Moment Workshop
  • TECH
  • About Us
    • Why Us?
    • Meet the Faculty, Lives & GT Judges
    • Testimonials
    • Books by Students
    • Our Bookshop
    • As Seen In
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
  • Blogfish
  • MN Course Access
  • Community
    • Our Bookshop
    • Come Play With Us!
    • Resources
    • Course Scholarships >
      • Yuyi Morales Picture Book Scholarship
      • Andrea Davis Pinkney MG CB Mastery Scholarship
      • Rafael Lopez Illustrating Childrens Books Scholarships
      • Larissa Marantz Merit & Need Scholarship

Observing and Inferring while Reading with Your Child

11/28/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
I often get asked the questions from new moms, “How do I read to my child?” “Are there certain things I should do?”
 
Recently, I was having a conversation with one of my friends and it got me thinking about how we can begin to plant seeds of higher level thinking in our kids even as young as two and three.
In the mid to upper elementary students will be required to notice tiny details in text and then use those details to make complex inferences about characters, or setting, or theme. These skills are hard and often students who fall behind in reading have issues with making inferences.
 
Over my time in working with students who struggle, I’ve realized that not only do they struggle with using those details to make the actual inference, but they struggle with simply noticing the details in text. One strategy that I’ve started using with students is to practice their “observation” skills first. What do you observe in the text? What do you notice?   And I begin this process by first taking the text away and observing a picture.
 
For example, take a look at this Norma Rockwell painting.
Using only your skill of observation make a mental list of everything you see.  ​
Picture
​Your list may start with things like:
girl
bench
door
two people in a separate room
​

Once you list the obvious drill down even further. Zoom in to specific areas of the painting and get specific.  For example if you zoomed in on the girl you might say:
 
hair
ribbon
socks
knees
black eye
Picture
 
 
But then we need to take it one step further. Let’s get descriptive about what we see in case we weren’t at first.
 
messy hair
untied ribbon
slouchy stretched out socks
bruised knees / bandaged knee
black eye
These are the details that will lead you to making inferences. (hair, ribbon, socks, and knees won’t allow you to make inferences that mean anything.)

 
 
Now that you’ve spent some time noticing. Tell me what do you think is going on in the picture?
This “thinking” part will be your inference.

​Think about the following questions:
  1. What’s going on in the picture? (What makes you say that? What evidence in the text that you can observed made you say that?)
  2. How is the little girl feeling? How do you know?
  3. Why might she be feeling this?
  4. What is the time period? How do you know?
  5. Who do you think she got in a fight with?
  6. Where is the other kid?
  7. Who are the other two people?
  8. If you had to give this painting a title, what would it be?
 
This process is helping in getting kids to notice and observe the details first and then use those details to make logical inferences.
 
Reading With Your Child

This same process can be used to get young kids to start thinking higher level.
For example, when reading a book to a young child pause on a page and ask some of the following questions:
 
*What’s happening in this picture? or Oh no! What happened?
*How does she feel? (If the child is able to correctly answer the question- follow it up with: You’re right. She’s sad. Look at her tears rolling down her face. Look at her lip puckering out.) Point out the “evidence” in the text to them. When they get older you will be able to ask them  How do you know?
*Why is she sad?
*Is it daytime or nighttime? How do you know? Yes it’s nighttime. Look at how dark it is. The moon is out. The moon comes out in the night time and the sun is out in the day time. 

*What’s going to happen next?
 
Simple questions like this can help young children develop vocabulary and higher level thinking skills.
 
Some great books for making inferences with young children are wordless/nearly wordless board books such as the David books and the Carl books. ​ However, any page of a book can work. 
Picture
Picture
2 Comments
Tutuapp link
4/25/2021 12:43:14 am

No matter what age the student is, teaching them about sustainability, helping them critically think about the subject, and encouraging them to play an active role in sustainability in their community will set them on a great path for the rest of their lives.

Reply
Showbox link
4/25/2021 12:43:35 am

In this day and age, teaching sustainability to students is more important than ever.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    We are so excited to be mixing things up at CBA, beginning with some delicious additions to the Blogfish. Meet our  awesome new bloggers!!

    Here's our lineup:
    1st Mondays begin with editor/art director, & CBA Director Mira Reisberg PhD who is handing her Mondays over to awesome former now traditionally pubbed students to widen their audience.

    2nd Mondays will feature super smart Melissa Stoller whose career is taking off with several new books.
     

    3rd Mondays will feature
    Bryan Patrick Avery, published writer, man of mystery, and professional magician among other things.

    4th Mondays will feature STEM, STEAM & SEL obsessed author Kourtney LaFavre sharing delightfully dorky, quirky, and fun info.

    And 5th Mondays will feature Libyan American author Koloud Tarapolsi sharing wonderful diverse books.

    Enter your email address to follow this blog:

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

Picture
Discover
Why Us?
Courses
Blogfish
Book Shoppe
About Us
Meet the Academy Faculty
Community
Contact Us

Privacy Policy
Join Us
Social Media
Join our Community and receive a fabulous free gift, yummy newsletters, scholarship info, contests, and more!

Like us on Facebook 
Join our interactive FB Group  
Find us on Twitter 
Follow us on ​Instagram  
Look for us on Pinterest
​
Watch us on YouTube
© 2012-2021  All content on this website is copyrighted. Sorry, all courses are non-refundable.
  • Home
    • THOH KidLit Creative Retreat
  • WRITING
    • Craft & Business of Writing Childrens Picture Books
    • The Chapter Book Alchemist
    • New!! Middle Grade Mastery Instant Access
    • Mastering Graphic Novels
    • 2022 Kidlit Palooza >
      • 2022 Palooza Program
      • 2022 Palooza Faculty
  • ILLUSTRATION
    • NEW!! Craft & Business of Illustrating Children's Books Instant Access
    • Never a Dull Moment Workshop
  • TECH
  • About Us
    • Why Us?
    • Meet the Faculty, Lives & GT Judges
    • Testimonials
    • Books by Students
    • Our Bookshop
    • As Seen In
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
  • Blogfish
  • MN Course Access
  • Community
    • Our Bookshop
    • Come Play With Us!
    • Resources
    • Course Scholarships >
      • Yuyi Morales Picture Book Scholarship
      • Andrea Davis Pinkney MG CB Mastery Scholarship
      • Rafael Lopez Illustrating Childrens Books Scholarships
      • Larissa Marantz Merit & Need Scholarship