Inferring

Inferring is the act of making an informed presumption about why something happened, what is happening, or what might happen when interacting with a text. An inference is based on your background knowledge, questions you ask, pictures, and information presented in the text (pictures or words).

Often, this strategy can be referred to as 'reading between the lines' because you may come up with an inference that is based on your own knowledge and understanding but was not explicitly stated in the text.

For example:
Can you guess where I am?
I smell something delicious. I hear jumbles of conversations and laughter. There are many people waiting in line. I am holding a plastic buzzer that blinks and finally the buzzes when it is our turn.

I am at a restaurant!

As you can see, there are clues that lead you to an assumption (inference) of where someone is, what someone is doing, or where they may be going based on your background knowledge and text clues.