Wednesday is our academic skill focus day, and our skill today was inferring, specifically the difference between inferring and observing. We went over the image from journal assignment, and students realized a lot of their initial observations were, in fact, inferences.

For instance, students began observing that the boy is upset, that he doesn't want to eat his veggies, and similar, not realizing that all of those things were actually inferences. Even the idea that he's frowning is technically an inference: we can observe that his brow is furrowed and the edges of his mouth are turned down, but strictly speaking, to say he's frowning involves a bit of inferring. Next, we looked at a photograph of an ice cream cone and made observations and inferences about it.

From there we went over what happens when we get carried away with inferences: they actually become assumptions. Students made a few assumptions with their first assignment, which in a worse-case scenario with a somewhat-less-nice teacher than I am could have disastrous consequences.

Finally, we went over another example that could be tricky: students were tempted to suggest that "They are in a movie theater" is an observation when it is actually an inference.

Tomorrow we will continue with inferring during our character development day as we return to "Thank You, Ma'am" to consolidate all our skills and reading for the week.

As an aside, we had our earthquake drill for today, and I couldn't resist snaping a shot: