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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.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: Reading 4; Reading 5 · 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 Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, 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: Maine Department of Education

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

    While reading a story, you stop and say, “I think the author is trying to teach us about honesty.” What are you making?

    • a global inference
    • a spelling check
    • a local inference
    • a direct quotation

  2. Question 2

    Why must the sap be boiled for hours?

    Maple Syrup Season

    In early spring, when nights are still freezing but days are warm, sap begins to rise in maple trees. Producers tap the trees and collect the clear, watery sap in buckets or tubing.

    It takes about forty liters of sap to make just one liter of syrup, so the sap is boiled for hours until most of the water has evaporated. Once the syrup is thick and golden, it is filtered and bottled.

    • to make it colder
    • to tap the trees
    • to turn it into buckets
    • to remove most of the water

  3. Question 3

    What is the best prediction about what happens next?

    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.

    • Ana forgets about her brother.
    • Ana leaves the market for the day.
    • The market becomes a library.
    • The lights go out or something unexpected happens, and Ana must keep her brother close.

  4. Question 4

    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 air smelled of grilled corn.
    • She held her brother's hand tightly.
    • The music played.

  5. Question 5

    What is a prediction?

    • a summary of what has happened
    • an informed guess about what will happen, based on clues
    • a fact from the glossary
    • a question for the author

  6. Question 6

    While reading, you realize you cannot explain the last page. What should you do?

    • skip to the end
    • read faster
    • reread and ask yourself questions
    • memorize the words

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