English · Stated vs inferred
Inference Iceberg
Sort each statement: written on the page, hidden underneath, or floating rubbish.
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Why this works
Reading well means holding three piles apart. STATED is anything you could underline: the words are physically there, like the coins being counted twice. INFERRED is what the clues force to be true even though the writer never wrote it: patched patches, counted coins and choosing between bread and a candle only add up one way, so being short of money is locked in without ever being said. UNSUPPORTED is the guess that feels sensible but has no clue behind it, like going hungry tonight, when in fact she bought the bread. The test that separates the last two is simple: name the clue. If you can point at the words that force your idea, it is an inference and you can defend it in an answer. If you cannot, you have imagined it, and in an exam it costs you the mark.
Helping a child through Inference Iceberg
Hints, least revealing first
- For STATED you must be able to put your finger on the words. If you are joining two clues together, it is not stated.
- For HIDDEN, ask what the detail is doing there. Nobody counts coins twice, or chooses between bread and a candle, unless money is tight.
- For the bin, ask what clue would have to exist. Nothing in the passage says what happens after she leaves the shop, so anything about tonight is a guess.
When they finish it: “The whole iceberg is yours!”
What usually goes wrong here
- Chooses a plausible inference without enough textual evidence.
This is the wrong answer 11+ papers are built to offer, so it is worth watching for directly: a child who does this will look confident and still lose the mark. If it keeps happening on infer implicit meaning, the fix is the misunderstanding rather than more questions.
3 11+ skills this exercise practises
Each of these has its own page, with a worked example on it. 2 of the 3 name the mistake that skill attracts.
- Infer a character stateInfer one character feeling, motive, or attitude from textual evidence.
- Infer implicit meaningDraw one supported conclusion that is not directly stated.
- Retrieve an explicit detailFind a detail stated directly in a passage.
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