4 (+2) Great Books for Teaching Inferencing
We have been hard at work on a new series of thinking skills units! Each unit will focus on developing one aspect of critical or creative thinking using five core skills.
While we are still working on finalizing the units, we are excited to bring you a series of blog posts with some great literature companions for each thinking skill. Our next featured thinking skill is one that spans across disciplines: INFERENCING.
Inferencing is a critical thinking skill used in convergent, analytical, and evaluative thinking. Students need to be able to piece together what information they have available to make educated guesses. This skill spans the gamut: from making hypotheses in science, to predicting in reading, to finding patterns in social studies, to applying generalizations in mathematical reasoning. It’s truly a core skill, and one that many students need more support in mastering.
For this skill, we have four great books. You might have noticed the +2 at the top–that’s because two of our favorites have sequels! While variations on a theme, the sequels are equally powerful in their own rights. Without further ado…here’s our list! Note: As Amazon affiliates, we may earn a percentage of each qualified sale.
This is a great book for inferencing. We hear only one side of a phone conversation: what can you infer is happening on the other end of the line? This is a great one for creative writing, reader’s theater, and role play!
A Hungry Lion, or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals by Lucy Ruth Cummins
This is such a sweet book. A lion wants to spend the day with his friends, but one by one, they disappear! Where are they going? What you infer might not be the correct answer… This is a great book for helping students make inferences based on existing schema and then seeing that an inference is simply a guess that may or may not be correct after all! The plot twists in this one will have you and your students rolling with laughter.
Who What Where? by Olivier Tallec
This is a great book for combining inferencing with observation. In this book, each page presents a new puzzle, and students must infer the answers based on what they know and what they observe in the illustrations. Both cheeky and straightforward, these are perennial favorites in both my house and my classroom.
BONUS BOOK(s)!: Oliver Tallec has also written two additional books in this same vein and style: Who Done It? and Who Was That? We highly recommend either/both!
This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
Jon Klassen is one of my very favorites. In this story, the first in a series of three hat stories, a little fish has stolen a hat from a big fish. As thepursuit continues, we must infer what happens when the fish swim into the tall grass! A great and open-ended story that we can’t recommend enough.
BONUS BOOK(s)!: Jon Klassen’s hat trio is completed with I Want My Hat Back and We Found a Hat. Both are similar in style but are completely new stories with new things to infer. We love them all!
That’s our list for now! What other books have you used to teach inferencing? We would love to hear from you!
