App: Inference Jones Beginning
Developer: The Critical Thinking Co.
Genres: Games, Education, Family

Develops a depth of analysis that guarantees superior inferential and reading comprehension skills for top grades and higher test scores! 

This app provides short, fun, and easy-to-use reading comprehension activities that improve critical reading and higher-order thinking skills. The activities focus on developing the student's ability to draw inferences from written text as they identify and evaluate evidence. Questions following all stories teach students to evaluate details that at first seemed insignificant but are actually meaningful! These activities develop a depth of analysis that guarantees superior inferential and reading comprehension skills for top grades and higher test scores!

Research shows inferential reasoning is a prerequisite component to superior reading comprehension. The National Foundation for Educational Research concluded that "the ability to draw inferences predetermines reading skills: that is, poor inferential reasoning causes poor comprehension and not vice versa." We all make inferences in our daily lives (e.g. we naturally think a child is happy because we see them laughing). But how does this ability apply to written communication? When we read a written passage, we're actually reading a representation of the author's thoughts and ideas, because the written word does not convey a meaning in and of itself. Readers must construct the meaning through interpretation. The reader's interpretation is the result of inferential analysis which includes drawing from personal knowledge and experiences, social values, and cultural conventions. The interpretation connects a meaning to the words, providing the reader with an understanding of the character's actions, circumstances, or events in the story.

Inference Jones Beginning includes zany, amusing, and clever short stories full of hints and clues to help students hone their inference skills. It has a readability level appropriate for Grades 3-4 but can also be used as a remedial resource for older students (Grades 5-12+).

Grades: 3rd and 4th (Ages 8-10 years old)
Subjects: Language Arts and Critical Thinking
Author: Robert E. Owen

Software Features
- 19 challenging activities
- Multiple-User Login
- Saves unfinished games
- Self-Grading with score tracking

This app has won the Creative Child Magazine 2012 Preferred Choice Award, Creative Child Magazine 2013 Preferred Choice Award, Language Arts Category, and the Jenkins Group Moonbeam Children's Book Award, Bronze Medal for Educational Activity Book!

Inference Jones' standards-based approach sharpens students' language, reading, and thinking skills for better academic performance and higher scores on assessment tests including:

Otis-Lennon School Ability Test® (OLSAT®)
Iowa Tests of Basic Skills® (ITBS®)
New York State English Language Arts (ELA) Test
Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE)
State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR)
Florida State Assessment (FSA)
California Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR)
Terra Nova/CTBS 3rd Edition
Secondary School Admissions Test (SSAT)
Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP)
Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP)
Ohio Proficiency Test
North Carolina End of Grade Tests
North Carolina Competency Tests
Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS)
Indiana Statewide Test for Educational Progress (ISTEP)
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS)
Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL)
Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT)
Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA)
and many more!

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