The question of teaching inference: research vs classroom reading strategy

Teaching inference in reading comprehension: what does the research say vs what actually works in the classroom? In this blog, LbQ’s own English content lead and teacher of 20+ years, Kate Brindle, reflects on the May 2026 SATs reading paper, presents the reading research and provides a list of easily-implemented strategies to use in your classroom. 

What’s in this article?

• Inference in the May 2026 SATs reading paper 
• How do we help pupils with questions that require inference?
• The five models of the reading process
• 6 ways to implement reading strategies in the classroom
• LbQ’s year 6 Reading Diagnostics: what are they and how do they work?

Inference in the May 2026 SATs reading paper

In response to the 2026 SATs reading paper, the general consensus seems to have been that the texts themselves were well-pitched and engaging, but the questions were very inference heavy. Many pupils get bogged down with three-part inference questions such as the one below and struggle to come up with more than one valid piece of evidence (sometimes just re-wording the same point three times in an attempt to 'fill in the lines'). 

See the 2026 SATs Reading Booklet to look at the whole text.

This question is classed in the content domain of 2d (make inferences from the text or explain and justify inferences with evidence from the text), but, as with most inference questions, there is a substantial overlap with word meaning (pupils who are not familiar with the word 'passionate' will immediately struggle to answer) and also retrieval. 

One of the accepted answers to the question is a reference to the easily retrieved question from Matilda, 'The reason I love inventing so much?', but other more inferential responses need pupils to make the link between Matilda's knowledge of her idols and her passion, for example. 

Note: The mark scheme doesn't allow references to Matilda's use of capital letters for emphasis or her use of exclamation marks to show strong feelings as being indicators of her passion for inventing, which I think is an oversight. 

Want more? Read Sophie Bartlett’s full analysis of the May 2026 SATs reading paper.

How do we help pupils with questions that require inference? 

Inference is a multi-layered process that draws on the past experiences of the reader, the knowledge of the vocabulary used and the ability to retrieve or extract the relevant evidence from the text in order to draw a reasonable conclusion. Naturally, schools endeavour to provide a broad range of new experiences for their pupils' benefit. They also work hard to expand their pupils' vocabularies by sharing rich and varied texts with them and discussing the language used, but of course it isn't possible to equip pupils with every single experience (and all of its associated vocabulary) that they may ever need when facing a new text! 

Note: To any Year 6 teacher who serendipitously happened to have had a visit to the Birds of Prey Centre, and studied both Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Amelia Earhart last year, your kudos certificate will be in the post as soon as you have provided three pieces of evidence that you did so!

We can, however, teach pupils useful strategies to apply to the questions that require inference in unfamiliar texts. Ongoing research confirms that teaching a small number of reading strategies is effective in improving comprehension.  

Equations, ropes, houses and cars: A brief synopsis of five models of the reading process

Reading is an incredibly complex process that experts have described in many different ways.

The simple view of reading, Phillip Gough

Phillip Gough and colleagues developed 'The simple view of reading' in 1986, and this was one of the first models of reading development that explored the process of reading acquisition. They used an equation to present their idea:

Reading Comprehension = decoding x linguistic comprehension

Reading rope, Scarborough

Many other models have followed since: Scarborough's ‘Reading rope’ (2001) breaks down two main elements into component parts which are then described as being intertwined to create 'Skilled reading – the fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and language comprehension'.

The reading house, Hogan, Bridges, Justice and Cain

The EEF uses an adapted version of Hogan, Bridges, Justice and Cain's  (2011) 'The reading house' to break down the two main component parts, word reading and language comprehension, into smaller blocks.

The DRIVE, Cartwright and Duke

The DRIVE (Deploying Reading in Varied Environments) model of reading by Cartwright and Duke (2019) provides a complex but accessible model of reading by comparing it with driving. This view of reading demonstrates an active, strategic process that is influenced by many interacting factors, as is driving. 

Along with linking other reading processes to the various aspects of driving, this model equates comprehension monitoring with the car's dashboard. Drivers check the dashboard to ensure that driving is proceeding smoothly and that all parts of the vehicle are operating properly. Similarly, readers are most effective when they monitor the reading process to ensure that comprehension is proceeding smoothly. When comprehension breaks down, effective readers slow down, reread, or use some other strategy to maintain their comprehension.

Another parallel in this model compares strategic reading to strategic driving: there are strategies for dealing with merging or blind spots, for example. Reading should also be strategic. Effective readers use strategies such as predicting, making inferences and visualising to support their understanding of text.

Strategies that work, Harvey and Goudvis

In Harvey and Goudvis (2017) 'Strategies that work', it is noted that the most effective way to teach comprehension is to base instruction on six strategies: 

• Monitor comprehension
• Activate and connect to background knowledge
• Ask questions
• Infer and visualise meaning
• Determine importance
• Summarise and synthesise

6 ways to implement reading strategies in the classroom

How do you apply this reading strategy research to a classroom setting and what does it look like?

1. Modelling reading strategies aloud

Modelling reading strategies aloud as you read with your pupils is an excellent start. There are examples added to each strategy below: 

• Monitor comprehension: 

"Oh, hang on. I am not sure if I said that tricky word correctly as it didn't make sense to me. I'll just have another go." 

"I wonder how Mandy knew that it was a tawny owl. Maybe I missed something in that paragraph, so I'll just go back and re-read a bit."

• Activate and connect to background knowledge:

"I'm not sure what the word 'idols' means in this sentence, but I remember something about idols being worshipped when we read about Ancient Egypt, so maybe it is something to do with worship."

• Ask questions:

"I wonder why Matilda's Granny Joss did not like to talk about being a scientist?" I'm going to jot that question down and see if it is answered as we read." 

"What did Albert Einstein invent? We might look that up later. I'll just make a note."

• Infer and visualise meaning:

"I think that Matilda has read a lot of books because it says in the text 'You're meant to describe yourself in books' so she must have read books that contained descriptions of main characters."

"I wonder what Matilda's Handy-Hand might look like. Maybe we can draw it. How might it work for Grandad Wilf?"

• Determine importance:

"I wonder if the fact that Amelia changed the direction of her round the globe trip on her second attempt was significant to her disappearance."

• Summarise and synthesise:

"So, Amelia Earhart flew around two-thirds of her journey around the equator, but disappeared between New Guinea and Howland Island, and she was never seen again? So, even today we still have no idea where she went? That's incredible!"

2. Reading diagnostic resources from Learning by Questions

One of the resources available on LbQ is our Reading Diagnostics. Pupils start with a diagnostic set of questions, then based on their answers, are provided with follow-up strategy resources. 

These strategy sets of questions are designed to help pupils practise a specific reading strategy and support them with a particular question they found problematic from the initial diagnostic. 

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Note: The Reading Diagnostics from Learning by Questions are matched to the SATs reading content domains. 

Below, you can get more information about LbQ's Y6 Reading Diagnostics.

These confidence-building reading strategy resources include written answer questions to help pupils practise the 2 or 3 mark questions. Feedback is given to these answers in the form of a brief mark 'scheme' with an exemplar answer, so pupils can reflect on their own work. The open-text answers on LbQ's Strategies Sets are an excellent way to share answers to inference questions with the whole class. 

3. Extended questioning and discussion prompts

Support pupils with the 'Find three pieces of evidence. . .' inference questions specifically: 

Use extended questioning (and jot down responses to model responses for pupils) during whole class reading.  Follow up an inference question with discussion prompts such as: 

• Why do you think that? 
• How do you know? 
• What evidence can you find to back your inference up?
• Does anyone else have a different idea?
• What is the evidence for that idea?

4. Note taking and evidence gathering

Encourage pupils to gather different pieces of evidence with their own note taking as they read. 

Pupils can gather evidence for their inferences using a prompt sheet (see below). Scaffold by providing the inferences and asking pupils to search for evidence. Or flip it and provide the evidence points, and ask pupils what inferences they can come up with that fit those points. When confident, pupils can use blank prompt sheets for their paired reading or independent reading.

5. Drama and role play

Use drama and role play to practise inferring emotions from behaviour or dialogue. 

For example: A pupil acts out a scene where they storm into the classroom and fling their bag down furiously.

Inference question: How was Jaxon feeling when he walked into the classroom that day? 

Find the evidence question: What did he do/say that made you infer that he was angry?

Dig a little deeper/open questions: What reasons could there be for him feeling that way? Have you ever felt like that at the start of a school day? Why? What made you feel better?

Alternative inferences (reinforce that there is often more than one 'right' answer): 

Does anyone have any other views? What is the evidence for those inferences?

6. Transform texts into graphic novels

Use graphic novel scenarios to add speech and thought bubbles for characters. Explore the differences between what characters might say and what they might be thinking then compare answers with others to see the breadth of inferences made.

Year 6 Reading Diagnostics from Learning by Questions

Reading Diagnostics by LbQ provide teachers and pupils with a broad collection of texts and associated comprehension activities to enhance pupils' progress in reading. 

LbQ’s Reading Diagnostic texts

Each Reading Diagnostic consists of an original text and 20 comprehension questions. The texts for the diagnostics vary in genre and increase in difficulty across the diagnostics, and they all conform roughly to the difficulty and word counts of texts from recent SATs reading papers. Genres range from science fiction to non-fiction biography and end on a historical fiction text as the last diagnostic. Lexile ranges begin at 810-1000L and end the year at 1010-1200L.

Trial LbQ's Reading Diagnostics

Want a series of Reading Diagnostics in your reading toolkit arsenal? Trial them for free.

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SATs-style reading questions

The questions alongside each diagnostic text cover all of the SATs content domains in broadly similar proportions to the SATs papers themselves.

Analyse and Action on Learning by Questions

Once pupils have completed a Reading Diagnostic in class, the Analyse and Action feature will suggest appropriate Reading Strategy Sets of questions for both the whole class and individual pupils alongside a Further Reading Task of an appropriate difficulty for each pupil. 

Reading strategies questions

The Reading Strategies Sets/resources are short sets of questions designed to help pupils practise specific reading strategies whilst being guided back to specific sections of the original text to support their learning. 

Each Strategies Set/resource will:

• refer back to the original text from the diagnostic, but shorter extracts will be used and are sometimes scaffolded with annotations to support pupils. 
• have one final question that will be a supported version of the question that the pupil got wrong in the diagnostic. 
• include longer answer questions that help pupils practise the 2 or 3 mark questions that are found in the reading SATs.
• provide feedback to each answer, sometimes in the form of a brief mark 'scheme' and an exemplar answer. 

Further reading tasks

Alongside the strategy resources on LbQ, the overall score for pupils will result in a further reading task, from the same genre and of an appropriate difficulty, being suggested for each pupil based on their score in the diagnostic.

It is important to note that the Analyse and Action feature makes suggestions of follow-up reading tasks, but it is always the teacher's decision which resources are actually assigned to pupils. 

Benefits of the Reading Diagnostics from LbQ

After completing all of LbQ's Reading Diagnostics, pupils will have:

• Read 14 new texts (at SATs-paper pitch and length)
• Explored 7 genres 
• Used approx. 140 new words in context
• Answered SATs-style questions across all reading content domains 
• Learned strategies for tackling new texts

Interested in a trial of Reading Diagnostics?

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