This document discusses strategies for teaching students to identify main ideas and make inferences when reading. It begins by defining main ideas, supporting details, and topics. It explains that main ideas are often stated at the beginning or end of paragraphs, and sometimes must be inferred. Guidelines for determining main ideas include summarizing, looking for repetition, and identifying when the main idea is stated or implied. The document also discusses drawing inferences using prediction, monitoring comprehension, and identifying text structures. It provides examples of reading strategies like predicting, during-reading, and after-reading techniques. Finally, it discusses approaches for teaching comprehension like directed reading lessons, roles for cooperative learning, and developing academic texts to enhance inference skills.

1. Teaching To Find Main
Idea and Inference
Rizki Amalia Witri
Dwi Firli Ashari
Dwi Novita Sari
Putri Tiara Ismawaty

2. Outline
1. Reading for main Ideas
•Elements of paragraph
•Where are main Ideas found?
•Guidelines to determine Main Idea
2. Background Information for Inference
•Draw inferences
•Reading strategies
•Teaching strategies

3. Three Elements of Piece of Writing
What is Main Idea?
• The author's message about the topic. It is often
expressed directly or it can be implied.
• The main information that a writer wants to
convey to a reader. It is presented to the in the first
or second sentence of a paragraph.
• A statement that is usually supported by several
specific details.

4. What are Supporting Details?
• The specific informations that support the main idea.
• They closely follow the main idea.
What is Topic?
• The topic of a piece of writing is its subject.
• Ask yourself what the writer is writing is about. The
answer will be its topic.

5. WHERE ARE MAIN IDEAS FOUND?
Those that are directly stated in the text:
• Main ideas are often found at the beginning of
paragraphs.
• Main ideas are also found in the concluding sentences
of a paragraph.
• The main idea can be expressed as a summation of the
information in the paragraph as well as a link to the
information in the next paragraph.

6. Those that are inferred or implied:
• Several sentences in a paragraph can imply the main idea
by introducing facts about the topic before actually stating
the topic.
• Implied ideas can be drawn from facts, reasons, or
examples that give hints or suggestions concerning the
main idea. These hints will be clues leading you to discover
the main idea in the selected text.

7. Guidelines to Determine Main Idea
1.
2.
3.
4.
Summarize the Passage
Look for Repetition of Ideas
When the Main Idea is Stated
When the Main Idea is Implied

9. Draw Inferences
• Process of conceptualizing meaning from a text
that is not directly stated but is implied.
• The prosess hyphotesizing-> Deductive (logical
manner) & Inductive (asumption based
observation &analysis)
• Principles: apply current knowledge, use text
clues, and monitor understanding.
• Function: To make make reasonable inferences
consciously and actively while the students
read.

10. Differences between good and
poor readers
• Characteristics of good readers:
1.assess their knowledge of the topic,
2.establish their purpose for reading,
3.reflect on specific reading strategies.
• Characteristics of poor readers:
1.begin reading with little or no preparation,
2.read without considering why they are reading
3.read without thinking about how to deal with the
material

11. Active Engagement with Content
• Factors: prior knowledge, purpose for reading &
knowledge of text structure (genre)
• Comprehension involves processing information and
drawing inferences, but each of it is different.

12. Teacher Questions
• Help the students to focus on making inferences
• Confirm students understanding of explicit content

13. Reading Strategies that helps students
understand the text and draw
inferences
• Predicting strategies
• During-reading strategies
• After-reading strategies

14. Predicting strategies
• Based on the prior knowledge ad personal experiences
• Made by drawing inferences
• There are three stages of predicting strategies
• Assessing current knowledge
• Identifying text structure
• Establishing purpose of reading

15. During-Reading Strategies
• Some predictions will be inaccurate
• Good reader monitor to confirm or modify their
assumption in understanding the text
• Understanding the text includes identifying the type of
•
the text to help them easier to get the information from
the text.
Common types of text:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Comparison and contrast
Cause and effect
Problem and solution
Sequence
Enumeration
Examples

16. After-reading Strategies
• Including confirming main idea of the text
• Drawing conclusion
• Evaluating content
• Purpose: to reflect on what they have read and to
draw general inferences

17. Teaching strategies that facilitate
inferences
• When the students read the text, there are some
•
•
qualifying term that helps the students for making
the inferences from the reading passage
A qualifying term is a word or phrase that shows the
level of ambiguity in a statement
There are 4 basic categories of qualifying the terms
•
•
•
•
No Ambiguity
Limited ambiguity
Moderate ambiguity
Extreme ambiguity

18. Qualifying Terms
No ambiguity
•
Some qualifying terms:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Absolutely
All
Certain
Each
Every
Limited ambiguity
•
Some qualifying terms:
•
•
•
•
•
It is probable
Rarely
Slightly
Mostly
There is little doubt
Undeniable
Without any doubt
Ex:
It has been proved that Hitler had
begun to plan for territorial
expansion even before he acquired
leadership over Germany
Ex:
It is probable that Hitler had begun to
plan for territorial expansion even
before he acquired leadership over
Germany

19. Moderate Ambiguity
Extreme Ambiguity
•
•
Some qualifying terms:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Some qualifying terms:
One can assume
One can say
Perhaps
This might mean
It seems
•
•
•
•
•
It is guessed
To all appearances
It is rumored
It should be obvious
Supposedly
Suppose
Ex:
One can assume that Hitler
had begun to plan for
territorial expansion even
before he acquired
leadership over Germany
Ex:
To all appearances, Hitler
had begun to plan for
territorial expansion even
before he acquired
leadership over Germany

20. • Beside the word or phrase that shows ambiguity
the students can make inferences by monitoring a
selection of connotation
• The connotation shows whether the author of the
text is positive, neutral or negative position
towards the topic
Ex:
Sir Winston Churchill continues to be the most
revered European leader of the 20th century

21. Approaches to Teaching Comprehension
and Inference Strategies
1.
Directed Reading Lesson (DRL) / Directed Reading
Activity (DRA)
2.
3.
4.
Modified Directed Reading Lesson (MDRL)
Language Experience Approach (LEA)
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA)

22. 1. DRL/DRA
• The teacher first introduces the selection and surveys the
students’ background knowledge about the topic.
Note: Attention is first devoted to important vocabulary, and
the purpose for reading is established.
• Next, the students read the selection, during which the
teacher asks questions to monitor understanding and to
encourage students to make inferences.
• Finally, students discuss the selection, and the teacher asks
questions to clarify, summarize, and confirm their
understanding.

23. 2. MDRL
• The teacher begins by introducing the story or selection to be
read.
• Then the skill or strategy that will be used with the selection
is explicitly taught.
• With the teacher’s help, students set purposes for both
reading the content and using the skill or strategy.
• Students then read the selection, after which they discuss
both the selection content and how the strategy or skill was
used while reading.

24. 2. MDRL (cont.)
MDRL requires careful teacher preparation, teacher should
prepare:
• providing explicit explanations
• modeling the procedure involved
• assessing student’s responses during the guided practice
• providing appropriate additional help
• having students use the strategy immediately in a reading
activity

25. 3. LEA
• The procedure starts with either a personal experience or a
story the students have read or even a movie they have seen.
• The class brainstorms about the topic while the teacher
writes their ideas on the board.
• Each student contributes a sentence or idea, which is added
to the content.
• The students copy the information from the board, and,
either in small groups, individually or in pairs, organize it into
a coherent narrative.

26. 4. DRTA
• The teacher assesses students’ background knowledge,
helps set purpose for reading, and identifies text structure.
• New vocabulary is identified and taught, and students are
guided in making predictions by surveying illustrations,
headings, and other clues.
• The teacher lists student predictions on the whiteboard,
then students read the selection and confirm or disconfirm
their predictions.
• Finally, the class discusses and summarizes the selection.

27. The Role of Cooperative Learning in
Developing Inference Strategies
1.
2.
3.
Paired Storytelling
Know – Wants – Learned (KWL)
Discussion Continuum

28. Conclusion: Developing Academic
Texts to Enhance Inference Use
• Teacher
has clear understanding about the learning
objective(s)
• Teacher must be able to apply comprehension strategies
and draw inferences
• Teacher should activate students’ prior knowledge + attend
to essential language components
• The role and attitude of the teacher

29. Teaching Simulation Time