While most of the country is Common Core aligned, Texas bases its standards on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, otherwise known as the TEKS. Our standardized test is called the STARR. In it, a vast majority of the questions require 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to use their background knowledge in combination with what the author has told them to make pedictions, or inferences, about the text. The problem is, how do STARR test writers know what background knowledge children have? How do you write inferencing questions that ensure the background knowledge required to answer them is the background knowledge that most 3rd through 5th graders have? As a reading specialist, I provide support in a 3rd and 4th grade classroom this year. I have been on the look out for ways to make teaching inferencing easy. So many teachers have told me it's a hard skill to apply, and that it may not be developmentally appropriate. Unfortunately, we still have to teach it. Here are some things