Encourage Students to Make Inferences

Angela McCorkle: So now I want you to help me out here. Tell me about the person that lives in this house with the big, fancy pool. Today we all wish we had a big, fancy pool at our house so we could spend the afternoon or the evening swimming in the pool. Tell me, who lives in this big house?

Student: A rich person.

Angela McCorkle: A rich person! And how do you know that they're a rich person? Student: They've got a massive pool in their backyard.

Angela McCorkle: Man, they're lucky. They've got a massive pool and a beautiful backyard. What elsedo we know about this person? Student: He's probably a businessperson.

Angela McCorkle: A businessperson, so somebody who has made good decisions. Okay. What else do you all think?

Student: They live by the beach.

Angela McCorkle: They live by the beach because they've got all the big palm trees there. So they're living large. What do we know about our society in the United States? Do we like to spend money?Do we like to have nice stuff? So part of that is based on our habitudes and our attitudes are based on our society and what we see around us. Coming from the Philippines, did you see a difference in how people in the Philippines react to money than how we do here? Student: Definitely.

Angela McCorkle: Definitely. Can you tell everybody what that was like?

Student: They're a bit more careful about what they spend on things. They don't buy it right now.They usually have to wait for a while until they have enough money or they just savefor whatever thing they want to do next.

Angela McCorkle: Okay, so you've seen a difference in society and that helps shape us, good or bad, inhow we deal with money.