Using Wordless Picture Books to Infer

The reading comprehension strategy of inferring is sometimes thought of as a strategy for older students.  It can be a difficult strategy to model and teach students as we try to help students understand that they need to "read between the lines" and read beyond what the text is giving us.  This is not a strategy for later in the year, or even later in the grades, but one that can be taught and understood right from Kindergarten.

There are many ways to help students infer when reading, and students as young as Kindergarten (and even younger!) are able to do it!  Through focusing on pictures in a book or using images to have students question and think about, inferring can happen in so many different ways.  

In Jennifer's Full-Day Kindergarten classroom, she started with inferring right at the beginning of the year.  Through the use of No, David! she used the images to have students infer what was going to happen (see the anchor chart to the right in the picture below).

From there, Jennifer uses wordless picture books to engage in a discussion about a story and what students infer is happening in the book.  In this lesson, she uses David Wiesner's Tuesday and has students think/pair/share as they view the pictures and think about what is going on.