Accessing Implicit Information in Texts

Now that's funny!

You are settled into a comfortable chair, wending your way through the daily newspaper, focusing on the weighty developments that touch your life - headlines and features, analyses, exposés, and editorials - when you sidle off to a diversionary sidetrip through the comics section. What meets your fancy today? The slice of adolescence in Zits? The goofiness of Funky Winkerbean or Get Fuzzy? The wry workplace commentaries of Sally Forth or Dilbert? The glimpses of a marriage with Arlo 'n' Janis? Or the barbed wit of Boondocks or Doonesbury? As you meander through this section, various cartoons spark your sense of whimsy.

Perhaps your response was just a smile. Or maybe you couldn't resist an audible chuckle or even a momentary outbreak of laughter. Possibly you looked up for someone with which to share this burst of levity. Humor, of course, provides a delicious and much-needed respite from the seriousness of our days.

But how is it that you "got the joke"? And why does something that strikes us as hilarious merely elicits a groan from others? And how do we factor in those individuals who fail to grasp the punchline, even when it is explained to them?

Invariably, humor engages us in making inferences. Inferential thinking involves searching for meaning that is implied rather than expressly stated. When we make an inference we read the clues and consider how our personal experiences and knowledge can help us reach an understanding. Sometimes, we miss or misread clues, which causes us to lose meaning. Other times, we may struggle making an inference because we lack some of the vital background that permits us to "make the leap" to making sense - we simply do not know what we need to know to "get it."

Research on reading comprehension consistently shows that many of our students flounder with the inferential thinking that is necessary to access the implicit meanings inherent in written texts. Many students can confidently answer questions that focus on explicit, directly stated facts and information. Yet these same students frequently find themselves befuddled, confused, and frustrated by tasks that take them deeper into texts and require them to construct meanings that are not apparent or literally provided by an author.

The Strategy

Students need to recognize when they are engaged in inferential thinking, and they need support as they become increasingly more proficient making inferences as they read. Strategies that guide inferential thinking while learning are especially important.

Step 1: Develop with students an awareness of the mental routines that constitute inferential thinking. Students naturally make inferences throughout their waking hours, without consciously realizing they are doing so. Emphasize that we constantly take in imperfect information, connecting it to things we know and have experienced, to come up with our best shot at an interpretation, a prediction, or an understanding.

To explore with students the natural human tendency to infer, provide them with a short passage that will likely prompt inferential thinking and guide students in an overt discussion of how they reached an understanding of the passage. For example:

Matthews dodged a tackler just as Jackson streaked past the defender. Matthews flung the ball as far as he could and it floated into Jackson's outstretched hands. The senior clutched the ball tightly and sprinted into the end zone, while the entire stands erupted into frenzied cheers. Across the field, the Cougars stood absolutely stunned, and then dejectedly trudged one last time into the locker room.

After students read the passage, interview them about how they arrived at their understanding. Students will quickly discover that they visualized a scenario based primarily on their abilities to make inferences rather than from explicit statements in the text. Ask them general questions first, such as:

• What activity is being described? Is this directly stated, or did you have to make an inference? What clues did the author provide?
• What happened in the above passage? What clues did the author provide?
• Where is this event taking place? What clues did the author provide?

As you debrief student responses, emphasize that the author did not literally say that this passage was describing a football game; the author assumed that knowledgeable readers would figure that out using the clues embedded in the text. Note that authors save space and shorten the lengths of texts by relying on readers to fill in the missing specifics with their own prior knowledge. If authors could not rely on readers to make inferences, texts would be hugely long, because the author would have the burden of telling you absolutely everything you would need to know to make sense of a passage.

Next consider how your students inferred a number of additional aspects in this passage:

• What position does Matthews play? Jackson? What clues did the author provide?
• Is this a home or away game for Matthews & Jackson?
• Who won the game?
• What team was leading the score when the event occurred?
• What level of competition is being described? Professional? College? Other?

Again, this discussion will reinforce with students the rich vein of understanding they naturally tap into through inferential thinking. Students will be confident with their inferences on some of these questions, but others will leave room for multiple interpretations. For example, students may infer that Matthews is a quarterback and Jackson a receiver, but other interpretations may also be possible, because readers will realize a variety of players are permitted to throw and catch a football. The author's clues do not preclude these multiple interpretations.

Likewise, students may infer that this is not a professional game, because the author refers to Jackson as a "senior," but it could be a college or high school game.

Step 2: As mentioned in the introduction to this column, cartoons are an especially apt way to illustrate how inferential thinking intersects with our construction of meaning. Analyzing cartoons can help students made a mental inventory of what authors depend on their readers to contribute to an understanding.

As you ask students to explain how you "get" the humor of a particular cartoon, continually direct their consideration to the following two questions:

• What does this cartoonist expect that readers will already know?
• What clues does the cartoonist provide to help the readers figure out the cartoon's humor?

For example, many of the classic Far Side cartoons, drawn by Gary Larson, clearly exemplify the necessity to address personal knowledge in concert with author's clues to infer the humor of the work. One of his cartoons features two large cat-like beasts with long protruding fangs who are walking away from ripped up looking clothing and a wooden club. One of the beasts says, "I've heard all kinds of sounds from these things, but 'yabba dabba doo' was a new one to me."

Many of us will "get" the humor immediately, but how did we get there? The cartoonist has provided ample clues, through details in the scene and especially with the 'yabba dabba doo' phrase. But readers must fill in the rest: these beasts are saber-tooth tigers, who once existed with prehistoric cave people; 'yabba dabba doo' was a signature phrase from an old cartoon TV series, uttered by lead character Fred Flintstone; and saber-tooth tigers ate people. Hence the humor: Fred has just been devoured by these matter-of-fact predators.

Of course, readers who lack key background knowledge - in this case, who have never heard of The Flintstones - -will probably not be able to figure out the humor. And even if it is explained to them, they still will not likely find it all that funny.

Start developing a file of appropriate cartoons to use for practicing inferential thinking with your students. Students find analyzing cartoons to be motivational and enjoyable, but this activity also underscores the two key variables in making inferences: author clues and reader prior knowledge.

Step 3: Continue practice with examining inferential thinking with a range of every-day material. Jokes, humorous articles, advertisements, and even video clips (from the television program The Simpsons, for example) can all be profitably employed to engage students in conversations about how they arrived at their understandings.

Advantages

The above activities reinforce the integral and ongoing role inferential thinking plays in reading comprehension.

• Students come to conceptualize reading as a two-way street, that travels from the author to the reader and back again, as readers are expected to create part of the message based on their prior knowledge and experiences
• Students realize that inferential thinking can break down for two reasons: lack of adequate background, and misreading or overlooking clues provided by an author.
• Students become increasingly comfortable with the challenges of accessing implicit meanings to texts they read in all their curricular areas.

Source Cited:

Larson, G. (1985) Bride Of The Far Side. Kansas City and New York: Andrews, McMeel & Parker.

Doug Buehl, teacher, Madison East High School
Wisconsin State Reading Association

Posted August 29, 2005