Grade 5 · Reading · Lesson 2

Use context to infer meanings

Strong Grade 5 readers do more than guess at unfamiliar words. They use the surrounding text — context — to infer a precise meaning, name the type of clue they used, and test the guess by rereading. Inference goes beyond simple guessing because it asks you to combine multiple hints in the passage.

What this lesson teaches

1Identify five common types of context clues in a passage
2Infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word from surrounding text
3Apply a four-step strategy to test a word-meaning guess
4Explain which clue type was most useful for each inference

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