What Is the Meaning of Infer?

When we ‘infer’ something, we use available clues and information to understand something that is not directly stated. This is a useful skill in education, as it allows us to draw logical conclusions while reading, listening or observing, based on our prior knowledge and the evidence at hand.

When teaching the concept of inference to students, the aim is to help them develop critical thinking skills and learn to look beyond the literal text or spoken words. Inference involves piecing together implicit information and understanding that authors or speakers don’t always explicitly say everything. Instead, they often provide hints or clues that allow the audience to figure out the underlying meaning.

Inference Lesson for Your Classroom

If you are looking for an anchor lesson to strengthen your students’ understanding of how to make inferences, you have come to the right place! Teach Starter has developed a 31-slide teaching presentation that is ready for you to use in your classroom. This slide deck covers the following topics:

• What is an inference?
• Why do we infer?
• How do we infer?
• Literal vs. inferential
• Using context clues to infer
• Observing pictures inference activity
• Making inferences based on short passages

How to Get Your Making Inferences Slide Deck

If you are ready to use this teaching presentation in your classroom, head on over to the green download button! Here, you will find the editable PowerPoint and Google Slides version of this resource. If selecting the Google Slides option, please note that you will first be prompted to make a copy of the file to your personal drive before accessing it.

Lisamarie DelValle, a Teach Starter collaborator, contributed to this resource.

Looking for More Inferencing Resources?

If your students need additional practise with making inferences, make sure to check out some of our other resources below!

teaching resource

Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences – Comprehension Task Cards

A set of comprehension task cards to help students draw conclusions and make inferences when reading.

teaching resource

Making an Inference – Graphic Organiser Pack

Use these graphic organisers with your students when teaching them how to use text evidence to make inferences.

teaching resource

Inference Comics - Worksheet

Use this set of comic strips when teaching your students how to infer information from everyday situations.