Basketball Inference

This inference-focused reading worksheet is designed for students in Grades 6, 7, and 8 to strengthen comprehension, emotional insight, and evidence-based reasoning. Students read a short narrative about Marcus’s experience trying to join his middle school basketball team and use actions, dialogue, and subtle details to infer his emotions, challenges, and motivations. Guided questions require learners to support each inference with direct textual evidence.

Learning Goals

• Making Inferences Using Textual Evidence (Grades 6-8)
  Students draw conclusions about unstated feelings and motivations based on story details.
• Character & Emotional Analysis
  Learners interpret how Marcus’s actions and words reveal struggle, determination, and self-doubt.
• Reading Comprehension & Close Reading
  Students analyze narrative clues rather than relying on explicit statements.
• Critical Thinking & Literary Response
  Written responses emphasize explanation, reasoning, and support from the text.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource
  Designed by educators to align with middle school ELA standards.
• Relatable, High-Interest Topic
  Sports and teamwork provide an engaging context for analysis.
• Evidence-Based Questioning
  Prompts reinforce citing specific lines or moments from the story.
• Flexible Classroom Use
  Ideal for inference lessons, small-group instruction, discussion starters, or assessment.

This printable worksheet gives students meaningful practice with inferential reading and character analysis. By examining Marcus’s experience on the basketball court, learners strengthen their ability to interpret emotions, motivations, and themes that are implied rather than stated. Suitable for classroom instruction or homeschool use, this no-prep resource supports deeper reading comprehension and confident literary response writing.

This worksheet is part of our Grade 7 Reading Comprehension collection.