GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
GED® Social Studies: Using
Inference Skills with Graphics
and Source Texts
Daphne Atkinson, GED Testing Service
April 2017
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
2
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
1
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Session Objectives
• Provide strategies, activities, and
resources to help students
– Identify and use information that is
explicitly stated in text
– Identify and use information that is
implicitly included in text
– Interpret inferences made in
graphic-based information, including
graphics, tables, charts,
photographs, and editorial cartoons
3
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Making Inferences:
The Skill
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
2
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
What does it
mean to infer?
5
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Making Inferences
Inferring—making inferences—is often described as
making a logical guess or "reading between the lines."
Making an inference is a lot like the chemical process of
forming a chemical compound—when two elements
combine and form a new substance. Readers make
inferences when they are able to take their own
experiences and combine them with information they
gather from what they read. The result is that they create
new meaning or draw a conclusion that isn't explicitly
stated in the reading (Zweirs, 2005).
6
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
3
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
The answers you get from
reading depend upon the
questions you pose.
-Margaret Atwood
7
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Where Does Inference Play a Starring
Role in Social Studies?
• Nonfiction texts through technologyenhanced items
• Graphics
• Political Cartoons
8
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
4
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Another Example
9
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
An Example
10
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
5
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Making
Connections
Questioning
Background
Knowledge
(schema)
Inference
Drawing
Conclusions
Predictions
Analysis of Text:
Interpretation/
Judgment
11
Imagination/
Visualization
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
The Challenge: Making Inferences
• Inferential questions are not answered directly in
the text. Students must go beyond the text—
using higher-order thinking skills.
• Making inferences relies on what it says in the
text, plus the reader’s background knowledge.
Many of our “reluctant readers” may lack
sufficient background knowledge to able to make
the inferences asked for in the text.
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
6
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
The Challenge of Teaching Inference
Prior Knowledge
Faulty
Partial
Nonexistent
Inference?
13
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
How Do Effective Readers Make Inferences?
Effective readers
• Leverage word/text clues and picture clues
• Define unknown words
• Look for emotion (feelings)
• Use what they already know
• Look for explanations for events
• ASK themselves questions!
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
7
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Inference is Process-Driven
The alchemy of inference:
• Using active reading skills (beyond the basics)
• Engaging with the text and/or information
presented
– Questioning
– Thinking critically
– Making connections
15
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
How Do You Make Inferences?
16
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
8
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Making Inferences:
The Strategies
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Strategies for Making Inferences
• Step 1: Gather clues and read “between
the lines.”
• Step 2: Reach conclusions based
evidence and reasoning
– Does it make sense?
– Is it supported by evidence?
18
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
9
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Teach Inferences By Moving from Simple
to Complex
Inference = Finding the Clues
From Simple to
Pictures/
Advertisments
19
Comics
Complex
Sentences
Short
Longer,
paragraphs more
intricate
passages –
fiction/
mysteries
Longer,
more
intricate
passages nonfiction
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Asking Questions of Photographs
Prompts
Answers
What do I see? (What do you
observe? What else?)
What does it remind me of?
(Another image? A personal
experience?)
What is the artist’s purpose? (To
Analyze? Persuade? Express?
Document? Entertain?)
So what? (Why does it matter?
What is the significance?)
20
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
10
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Using Photographs
• What do you observe
in this picture?
• What does it remind
you of?
• What is the
photographer’s
purpose?
• What inferences can
you make based on
what you see in this
picture?
21
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Using Photographs
• What do you observe
in this picture?
• What does it remind
you of?
• What is the
photographer’s
purpose?
• What inferences can
you make based on
what you see in this
picture?
22
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
11
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Teaching with Comics
Sample Questions
1.
What do you see?
2.
What do you know
about excuses on
not having your
homework done?
3.
What does the
student mean when
he says, “I ate my
homework.”?
23
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Teaching with Comics
1. What do you see?
2. What does
Charlie Brown
mean?
3. What can you
infer from the
comic?
24
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
12
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Teaching Inference through Editorial
Cartoons
25
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Looking at Non-fiction Texts
26
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
13
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Example: It Says – I Say – And So
Question
It Says
What did the court This is a job for
want to prevent?
the Nation’s
lawmakers, not for
its military
authorities.
27
I Say
And So
The Constitution
clearly shows a
separation of
powers within the
three branches of
government with
each branch
having its own job
to do.
The court wanted
to ensure that the
President
(commander in
chief) did not
interfere with the
rights of the
legislative branch
in doing their job.
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
What Happens When You Read?
While you read, your “inside voice”
• Makes guesses
• Finds connecting points
• Asks questions
• Makes predictions
• Personalizes the reading
• Uses background knowledge to interpret
Zimmerman and Hutchins, 2013
28
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
14
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
An Engaged Reader’s Dialogue with
Text
• “What does he/she mean by…”
• “I can relate to…”
• “What else could this mean?”
• “What is the evidence?”
• “The author states so I can infer…”
• “How does the text relay the author’s point of
view?”
29
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Moving Into the Social
Studies Context
30
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
15
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
The Pivotal Social Studies Indicator
SSP.1.a
Determine the details of what is explicitly
stated in primary and secondary sources
and make logical inferences or valid claims
based on evidence.
31
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
The Unvarnished Truth…
• Reading is fundamental so-– How do historians read?
– How can you teach students to “read like a
historian?”
32
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
16
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Reading Like a Historian
3 Cs and an S
Source
Close
Reading
Contextualization
Corroboration
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Let’s Start with the Essentials
• History is an account of the past.
• Accounts differ depending on one's perspective.
• We rely on evidence to construct accounts of the
past.
• We must question the reliability of every piece of
evidence.
• Any single piece of evidence is insufficient to
build a plausible account.
34
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
17
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
S = Sourcing
Sourcing (Before Reading)
• Who authored the document?
• What is the author’s point of view?
• When was it written?
• Where was it written?
• Why was it written?
• Is this source believable? Why? Why not?
35
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
S = Sourcing
The Way Station
Each evening, the stage announces its approach to a way station by the driver blowing a bugle. The way station
offers sparse comfort.
"The station buildings were long, low huts, made of sun-dried, mud-colored bricks, laid up without mortar
(adobes the Spaniards call these bricks, and Americans shorten it to 'dobies.)The roofs, which had no slant to
them worth speaking of, were thatched and then sodded or covered with a thick layer of earth, and from this
sprang a pretty rank growth of weeds and grass. It was the first time we had ever seen a man's front yard on
top of his house.
The buildings consisted of barns, stable-room for twelve or fifteen horses, and a hut for an eating room for
passengers. This latter had bunks in it for the station-keeper and a hostler or two. You could rest your elbow on
its eaves, and you had to bend in order to get in at the door. In place of a window there was a square hole about
large enough for a man to crawl through, but this had no glass in it. There was no flooring, but the ground was
packed hard. There was no stove, but fire-place served all needful purposes. There were no shelves, no
cupboards, no closets. In a corner stood an open sack of flour, and nestling against its base were a couple of
black and venerable tin coffee-pots, a tin teapot, a little bag of salt, and a side of bacon.
By the door of the station keeper's den, outside, was a tin wash-basin, on the ground. Near it was a pail of water
and a piece of yellow soap, and from the eves hung a hoary blue woolen shirt, significantly - but this latter was
the station-keeper's private towel, and only two persons in all the party might venture to use it - the stage-driver
and the conductor.“
Mark Twain, Roughing It
1872
36
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
18
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
C = Contextualization
• When and where was the document created?
• What else was going on at this time?
• What was it like to be alive at this time?
• What was different/same then?
• How might the circumstances (in which the
document was created) affect its content?
37
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
C = Contextualization
The Way Station
Each evening, the stage announces its approach to a way station by the driver blowing a bugle. The way
station offers sparse comfort.
"The station buildings were long, low huts, made of sun-dried, mud-colored bricks, laid up without mortar
(adobes the Spaniards call these bricks, and Americans shorten it to 'dobies.)The roofs, which had no slant
to them worth speaking of, were thatched and then sodded or covered with a thick layer of earth, and from
this sprang a pretty rank growth of weeds and grass. It was the first time we had ever seen a man's front
yard on top of his house. The buildings consisted of barns, stable-room for twelve or fifteen horses, and a
hut for an eating room for passengers. This latter had bunks in it for the station-keeper and a hostler or
two. You could rest your elbow on its eaves, and you had to bend in order to get in at the door. In place of
a window there was a square hole about large enough for a man to crawl through, but this had no glass in
it. There was no flooring, but the ground was packed hard. There was no stove, but fire-place served all
needful purposes. There were no shelves, no cupboards, no closets. In a corner stood an open sack of flour,
and nestling against its base were a couple of black and venerable tin coffee-pots, a tin teapot, a little bag
of salt, and a side of bacon.
By the door of the station keeper's den, outside, was a tin wash-basin, on the ground. Near it was a pail of
water and a piece of yellow soap, and from the eves hung a hoary blue woolen shirt, significantly - but this
latter was the station-keeper's private towel, and only two persons in all the party might venture to use it the stage-driver and the conductor.“
Mark Twain, Roughing It
1872
38
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
The average stagecoach could squeeze 18-20
passengers into it. They averaged 8 mph over
good terrain and horses were changed every 12
to 15 miles. Each cost over $1,500 to build.
19
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
C = Close Reading
• What claims does the author make?
• What evidence does the author use to support those
claims?
• What language (words, phrases, images, symbols)
does the author use to persuade or inform?
• How does the document's language indicate the
author's perspective?
• What information does the author leave out?
• How does the document make me feel?
39
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
C = Corroboration
• What do other documents say?
• Do the documents agree? If not, why?
• What are other possible documents?
• What documents are most reliable or most
believable?
40
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
20
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
C = Corroboration
41
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Differentiate!
Allow students to select the primary or secondary sources
that they wish to “read.” Include some or all of the following:
• Speeches
• Diary entries
• Excerpts from primary
• Edited writings (careful to
sources
• Photographs, maps, posters
keep the meaning of the
original text)
• Video or audio recordings
• Artifacts
• Personal letters
• Songs
• Excerpts from
• Newspaper articles
42
autobiographies or
• Interviews
biographies
• Excerpts from novels, stories
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
21
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
And Don’t Forget . . .
43
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Resources
Getting Started
44
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
22
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Sample Lesson Plans
Reading Like a
Historian
http://sheg.stanford
.edu/rlh
45
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Primary Sources
50 Core Documents
http://teachingamerican
history.org/50docs/
46
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
23
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Teaching History
Primary Source Sets,
Lesson Plans, and
More . . .
http://teachinghistory.or
g/best-practices/usingprimary-sources/24490
47
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
DocsTeach – The National Archive
http://docsteach.org/
48
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
24
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Annenberg Classroom – Resources for
Excellent Civics Education
http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/
49
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Digital History
Reader
http://www.dhr.hist
ory.vt.edu/modules
/us/index.html
50
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
25
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Lesson Plans Using S + 3Cs
Step into the
shoes of a
History Detective
http://www.pbs.or
g/opb/historydete
ctives/educators/
51
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
One More Great Site!
Roy Rosenzweig Center for
History and News Media
http://chnm.gmu.edu/teachin
g-and-learning/
Live Binders
http://www.livebinders.com/pl
ay/play/573792
52
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
26
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Summing It Up – Tips for
Incorporating Primary Sources
• Identify primary sources that support PLDs
• Focus Activity – introduce document analysis as a
regular activity
• Brainstorming Activity – launch a brainstorming session
prior to a new unit of study with a document
• Content Activity – provide information on the historical
context of the document and have students explore the
big ideas and the enduring issues
53
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
http://www.gedtestingservice.com/educators
54
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
27
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Need Resources for Source Texts?
• GEDTS Website
• Newsela https://newsela.com/
• Pro/Con
http://www.procon.org/
55
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
Questions
56
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
28
GED Social Studies: Using Inference Skills With Graphics & Source Texts
2017
Thank you!
Daphne Atkinson
[email protected]
[email protected]
57
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com
© Copyright 2017 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved.
29