7. Making inferences is when students draw conclusions from the text using the text clues and their background knowledge. Essentially, students are trying to figure out what the author doesn't explicitly tell them in the text. It's a higher-level thinking skill and involves “thinking beyond the text.”
8. In addition to understanding the literal points that the author is making, good readers are able to “read between the lines” and draw inferences about a wide range of hidden meanings, such as why events are unfolding as they do, why characters behave in a certain way, what the characters are thinking,