What teacher question is most likely to promote inferential comprehension skills based on the excerpt?

The question that is most likely to promote inferential comprehension skills encourages students to explore the underlying thoughts, emotions, or motivations of a character, which is essential for deeper understanding of the text. By asking what the narrator is thinking when she gets on the bus, students are prompted to go beyond the explicit content of the story and draw inferences about her mental state, feelings, and context. This kind of question requires them to synthesize information from the text, consider the narrator's past experiences, and interpret the significance of her thoughts in relation to the events unfolding in the story.

In contrast, the other questions focus more on specific details or surface-level understanding. For instance, asking why the narrator dislikes her skirt might yield a factual answer based on the text but does not necessarily require the student to engage in inference. Similarly, while inquiring about how the bus environment affects the narrator offers some room for interpretation, it still leans more toward a direct cause-and-effect understanding rather than delving into the narrator's internal thoughts. Lastly, the question regarding the narrator’s expectations for high school also asks for a prediction or a direct statement rather than encouraging deep engagement with the character's inner life and nuanced understanding of her experiences.