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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 7 of 12

Reading Detective

Predict, infer and summarize

What your child practices

Making and checking predictions, choosing a strategy when reading gets tricky, drawing local and global inferences from clues, and summarizing the main ideas of complex texts.

Alaska content standards learning standard: RI.8.1; RI.8.2 · inferring and summarizing

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Predict, then check your prediction as you read.
  2. An inference uses clues plus what you know. A local inference is about one detail; a global one is about the whole text, like its message.
  3. Summarize the main ideas in your own words. Use connections to understand.

Example: You stop and say, “The author is trying to teach us about honesty.” What are you making? This is about the message of the whole story. An inference about the whole text is global. Answer: a global inference

Reading Detective in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 7 of 12 in 8th grade English Language Arts, after Forms, Patterns & Visuals and before Digital Citizens.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which detail best supports that inference?

    The Letter

    Noor read the letter twice, folded it into a small square and slipped it into her pocket. At dinner she pushed her peas around the plate and answered every question with one word. When her little brother asked her to play, she shook her head and stared out of the window.

    • Her brother asked a question.
    • Dinner included peas.
    • The window was in the kitchen.
    • She pushed her peas around the plate and answered with one word.

  2. Question 2

    Which detail best shows Ana is careful?

    The Night Market

    Stalls glowed under strings of lanterns, and the air smelled of grilled corn and sweet dough. Ana held her brother's hand tightly as the crowd pushed past.

    “Stay close,” she said. A moment later, the lights flickered, and the music stopped.

    • Lanterns hung over the stalls.
    • The music played.
    • She held her brother's hand tightly.
    • The air smelled of grilled corn.

  3. Question 3

    What does the flickering light most likely signal?

    The Night Market

    Stalls glowed under strings of lanterns, and the air smelled of grilled corn and sweet dough. Ana held her brother's hand tightly as the crowd pushed past.

    “Stay close,” she said. A moment later, the lights flickered, and the music stopped.

    • a change or problem is coming
    • Ana is winning a prize
    • the market is closing for the season
    • the corn is ready

  4. Question 4

    Which inference is best supported by the passage?

    The Letter

    Noor read the letter twice, folded it into a small square and slipped it into her pocket. At dinner she pushed her peas around the plate and answered every question with one word. When her little brother asked her to play, she shook her head and stared out of the window.

    • The letter was about her dinner.
    • The letter was written by her brother.
    • The letter was a party invitation she was excited about.
    • The letter gave Noor news that worried or upset her.

  5. Question 5

    What is a local inference?

    • a conclusion about a specific word, phrase or sentence
    • the title of the text
    • a summary of the whole chapter
    • a conclusion about the whole text

  6. Question 6

    What does scanning a text help you do?

    • decide the theme
    • predict the ending
    • find a specific fact, name or date
    • write a new paragraph

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