Proficient readers make predictions naturally, without even knowing it. They predict what a book will be about based on the title, they predict why characters act a certain way, and they guess what will happen next when they get to the end of a chapter.
It’s important that teachers help teach young students to use this same reading comprehension strategy as well. Predicting helps keep the reader’s mind engaged and activated as he or she works through a text. When students actively predict while reading, they stay connected to the text and can reflect upon, refine, and revise their predictions.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE TEACHING THE PREDICTING READING STRATEGY:
Predicting requires the reader to do two things: 1) use clues the author provides in the text, and 2) use what he/she knows from personal experience or knowledge (schema). When readers combine these two things, they can make relevant, logical predictions.
When students make predictions, we want them to be able to justify their thinking. In their predictions, we want to hear students drawing from both the text and their own schema. Asking students to justify their predictions, keeps them accountable for their thinking and helps them take their thinking deeper.
Readers should make predictions before, during, and after reading. There are several different kinds of predictions that a reader can make with a text. Readers can:
predict what the book will be about (Reader use titles and cover illustrations, etc.)
predict the author’s purpose (Is the author trying to convince us of something? Does the author want to teach us something? etc.)
predict future events in the book (Reader bases these predictions on previous events or character words and actions)
predict why an author included a specific text feature (What does it teach us? What information does it help clarify?)
predict what they will learn from the text or section within a text (Reader uses titles, headings, and subheadings to inform predictions)
predict what would happen next at the end of the book if it were to continue
Predicting involves more than just trying to figure out what will happen next. In fact, predicting requires students to draw on a variety of other secondary skills. As students look for evidence for their predictions, they also ask themselves questions, reread the text, recall information given in the text, infer, and draw conclusions.
Making predictions helps set the stage for students to monitor their own comprehension. Making predictions naturally encourages the reader to want to continue reading in order to find out if their predictions were correct or not. By making predictions and then reading on to see if those predictions were correct helps to let the students know if their thinking was on the right track. Using the prediction strategy correctly, truly will result in comprehending the text more fully.
INTRODUCING THE PREDICTING READING STRATEGY TO STUDENTS
The concept of predicting will most likely not be new to students. Activating this skill while reading, however, may require some practice. Since students may not be stopping to make predictions as they read, explicit instruction to train students to do so is essential.
You can introduce this reading comprehension strategy with a simple exercise. Tell students that you are going to play a quick game that will require them to guess what you are going to do next in your school day.
Explain that you are going to leave and re-enter the room, providing clues as to what you are going to do next. Here are two example scenarios that you might use:
When you re-enter the room, grab a soccer ball (or other playground equipment), put on your coat, and grab your whistle. Have students predict what you are going to do next (go out for recess).
When you re-enter, go to your desk and pull out your current read-aloud book and have a seat where you normally share your read-aloud with the class. Have students predict what you are going to do next (read-aloud to the class).
In either case, have stzudents share out the clues that they used to make their guesses. Explain that when students made a guess as to what you were doing next, they were making predictions. Tell students that readers make predictions all the time in the books that they are reading by using clues that the author gives them, and by using their own personal knowledge. In the scenarios above, the students used the clues from your actions plus their knowledge from past experiences to make their guesses as to what you were going to do next.
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