Inferences

This past week, our reading lesson focused on making inferences. For those of you who haven't been in a fifth grade reading class lately, making inferences is all about using clues from your reading to come to a conclusion about the reading. For example, if you read that the main character is carrying an umbrella, then you can infer that it is raining.

In class, we read a story about a little girl named Mary. In the story, Mary loses her most precious possession, her dog. She cries and cries over the dog.

The students were given a worksheet that said, "What can you infer about how Mary feels in the story? How do you know?"

Julio is a very short Hispanic boy who has so much energy that his body literally vibrates at all times. Not the type of student who is going to be thrilled about the idea of making inferences. His answer on the worksheet:

"She was said. I readed the story."

I don't know what I should review first....making inferences or correctly using the past tense.