Writers rarely tell you what a character is like. They show you a clue and let you work it out.
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Students will learn what an inference is (a clue from the text plus what the reader already knows), practice it on the characters in O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi, and answer questions that give a line and ask what it shows about Della or Jim.
A character is a person or animal who takes part in the action of a story. An inference is an educated guess based on evidence: a clue the text gives plus something the reader already knows. The text says what Della does and says; the reader supplies what that kind of action usually means.
An inference isn't a fact stated in the text, and it isn't a wild guess either. It has to be backed by a line.
Students retell the line instead of saying what it shows, or they guess something the text doesn't support. Ask for the clue and for what he knew that connected it to his guess. Another slip is calling a plot fact an inference: the narrator says Della sold her hair, which is a fact, and that she loves Jim is the inference.
At each stop have the student say his inference aloud before the page gives its own, and then ask him to name the clue and the thing he knew. The same two-part check works on every question.
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Before You Start
The words this lesson uses. Tap a card to see what it means, then come back to them whenever a question uses one.
Part One
Questions about the story you just read. Pick your answer straight off, or press Find it in the story if you would rather hunt for the sentence first.
Part Two
The word cards are at the top of this page. Look back at them as often as you need, then answer.