Middle School Making Inferences IEP Goals

• Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.1
• Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.1

Note that the Common Core has the exact same standard under literature and informational text. We built the goal on the RL standard, but you can swap it to RI if you want!

• When students make inferences, they are putting together two pieces of information to come up with a third. Like if I said I was sad because I didn’t have my umbrella, you might put together sad and umbrella and come up with rain.  
• Often times, we try to teach and assess inferences in isolation, like I did with the rain example. The problem with that is that what we actually want students to do is to make inferences in context as that is what they need to do for strong reading comprehension.
• Way 1: Ask questions. If a story doesn’t explicitly state how a character feels, ask the student how they think the character feels– and then why. If they are putting together evidence from the text to come up with something not stated, that’s an inference.  Note that is going to be easier if there is a picture of someone crying and harder if the text just says that the character misses her grandfather. You can do the same thing with questions on the setting of the story or even about what happens next. 
• Way 2: Block out a sentence from a text and ask the student what they think might go there. To do that, the student has to read the sentence before and after and make an inference about what might be missing.
• If the student has low fluency in their decoding, try reading them a story (or having them listen to one on the computer) and check to see if their comprehension improves.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

After listening to a grade level passage, John can answer factual questions about the events of the story with 80% accuracy, but he has difficulty answering questions that require reading between the lines, answering inferential questions with only 20% accuracy. 

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

• After reading a story at his/her level, X will cite textual evidence to support inferences drawn from the text, so that, on three of four opportunities, he/she is able to cite a specific piece of evidence in the text to support his/her inference as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.1

• Add supports for the student
  • After listening to a familiar story,
  • After listening to an unfamiliar story,
  • After listening to a grade-level story or passage,
  • After reading a pre-taught story,
• Give even more supports
  • and given a graphic organizer,
  • and given multiple choices,
  • and given a copy of the text to look at,
  • and given prompting questions,
• Change the accuracy or number of trials
  • with 80% accuracy
  • with 75% accuracy
  • on two of three opportunities
  • on three of four opportunities
• Change what the student is asked to do
  • cite two specific pieces of evidence
  • make two, text-supported inferences about the story or passage
  • to support his/her inference about a character’s motivation or feelings
  • to support his/her inference about a character’s motivation or feelings
  • to support his/her inference about a character’s personality or relationships
  • to support his/her inference about the setting of the story

• Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.1
• Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.1

Note that the Common Core has the exact same standard under literature and informational text. We built the goal on the RL standard, but you can swap it to RI if you want!

• When students make inferences, they are putting together two pieces of information to come up with a third. Like if I said I was sad because I didn’t have my umbrella, you might put together sad and umbrella and come up with rain.  
• Often times, we try to teach and assess inferences in isolation, like I did with the rain example. The problem with that is that what we actually want students to do is to make inferences in context as that is what they need to do for strong reading comprehension.
• Way 1: Ask questions. If a story doesn’t explicitly state how a character feels, ask the student how they think the character feels– and then why. If they are putting together evidence from the text to come up with something not stated, that’s an inference.  Note that is going to be easier if there is a picture of someone crying and harder if the text just says that the character misses her grandfather. You can do the same thing with questions on the setting of the story or even about what happens next. 
• Way 2: Block out a sentence from a text and ask the student what they think might go there. To do that, the student has to read the sentence before and after and make an inference about what might be missing.
• Way 3: A lot of commercial comprehension assessments include both fact and inferential questions. Administer the assessment and then report on how the student did on the inferential questions relative to the factual ones. 
• If the student has low fluency in their decoding, try reading them a story (or having them listen to one on the computer) and check to see if their comprehension improves.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

After reading a passage at her level, Kit needs prompting to answer questions about character details that weren’t directly in the story. For example, when asked what a character liked or disliked, Kit answered based on what she likes or dislikes and then had difficulty finding evidence in the text to support her inference.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

• After reading a story at his/her level, X will cite several pieces of textual evidence to support  inferences drawn from the text, so that, on three of four opportunities, he/she is able to cite at least two pieces of textual evidence to support one inference about the characters or events of the story, as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.1

• Add supports for the student
  • After listening to a familiar story,
  • After listening to an unfamiliar story,
  • After listening to a grade-level story or passage,
  • After reading a pre-taught story,
• Give even more supports
  • and given a graphic organizer,
  • and given multiple choices,
  • and given a copy of the text to look at,
  • and given prompting questions,
• Change the accuracy or number of trials
  • with 80% accuracy 
  • with 75% accuracy 
  • on two of three opportunities
  • on three of four opportunities
• Change what the student is asked to do
  • cite two specific pieces of evidence
  • make two, text-supported inferences about the story or passage
  • to support his/her inference about a character’s motivation or feelings
  • to support his/her inference about a character’s motivation or feelings
  • to support his/her inference about a character’s personality or relationships
  • to support his/her inference about the setting of the story

• Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.1
• Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.1

Note that the Common Core has the exact same standard under literature and informational text. We built the goal on the RL standard, but you can swap it to RI if you want!

• When students make inferences, they are putting together two pieces of information to come up with a third. Like if I said I was sad because I didn’t have my umbrella, you might put together sad and umbrella and come up with rain.  
• Often times, we try to teach and assess inferences in isolation, like I did with the rain example. The problem with that is that what we actually want students to do is to make inferences in context as that is what they need to do for strong reading comprehension.
• Way 1: Ask questions. If a story doesn’t explicitly state how a character feels, ask the student how they think the character feels– and then why. If they are putting together evidence from the text to come up with something not stated, that’s an inference.  Note that is going to be easier if there is a picture of someone crying and harder if the text just says that the character misses her grandfather. You can do the same thing with questions on the setting of the story or even about what happens next. 
• Way 2: Block out a sentence from a text and ask the student what they think might go there. To do that, the student has to read the sentence before and after and make an inference about what might be missing.
• Way 3: A lot of commercial comprehension assessments include both fact and inferential questions. Administer the assessment and then report on how the student did on the inferential questions relative to the factual ones. 
• If the student has low fluency in their decoding, try reading them a story (or having them listen to one on the computer) and check to see if their comprehension improves.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

As she is reading Lianna can answer both fact-based questions about the story, like the names of the characters, and some inferential questions, like the weather in the story. She needs more support answering nuanced questions about a character’s motivation or their character and, when asked to find evidence to support her inference about a character, will often point to a random detail about the character rather than the strongest piece of evidence. 

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

• After reading a story at his/her level, X will  cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports inferences drawn from the text, so that, on three of four opportunities, he/she is able to make an inference about a character’s motivation or personality and find one of the strongest pieces of textual evidence for that inference, as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.1

• Add supports for the student
  • After listening to a familiar story,
  • After listening to an unfamiliar story,
  • After listening to a grade-level story or passage,
  • After reading a pre-taught story,
• Give even more supports
  • and given a graphic organizer,
  • and given multiple choices,
  • and given a copy of the text to look at,
  • and given prompting questions,
• Change the accuracy or number of trials
  • with 80% accuracy 
  • with 75% accuracy 
  • on two of three opportunities
  • on three of four opportunities
• Change what the student is asked to do
  • cite two specific pieces of evidence
  • make two, text-supported inferences about the story or passage
  • to support his/her inference about a character’s motivation or feelings
  • to support his/her inference about a character’s motivation or feelings
  • to support his/her inference about a character’s personality or relationships
  • to support his/her inference about the setting of the story