Making predictions is something that proficient readers naturally do, even without knowing it. As soon as we pick up a new book on the library or book store shelf, we are making predictions and judgments about that book based on the cover as we thumb through the book. Today, I’m sharing 3 activities for making predictions in our 10-week Reading Comprehension Strategies Series.
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In this post, you will find 3 different activities for making predictions {with a free printable pack which can be found at the end.} We will explore making simple predictions with
1- Pre-K/K, including pre-writers,
2- making and changing predictions with older kids {2nd through 5th grades} and
3- making predictions with nonfiction text.
Hang with me here because there’s a lot of information!
Teaching Kids to Make Predictions
What is a prediction? Predictions are created by combining TWO things: 1- clues the author leaves for the reader, such as the words, pictures or text features and 2- what you know {your schema}.
Justifying predictions: When asking kids to make predictions {or use any other comprehension strategy}, I firmly believe it is important to ask kids WHY they think that. In their answer, I’m listening for them to connect to the text in some way and/or to use their schema or background knowledge.
Asking readers why takes them a step deeper into the comprehension strategy and gets them thinking about their thinking {remember this term from our introduction post: metacognition.} The printables in this pack will also ask kids to justify their answers.
Prepping a Book: It is important when you want to model a comprehension strategy that you look through the book ahead of time and think about how you want to share your thinking and what you want to say. I’ve been teaching comprehension for 12 years now and I still have to prep my thoughts {also known as a think aloud}. Doing it “on the fly” is never as effective as preparing ahead of time.
I even like to post sticky notes within the book where I want to stop and share my thoughts ahead of time. Otherwise, I’ll probably forget. 🙂
Making Predictions with Young Readers
Making predictions is a simple place for young readers to begin their comprehension journey. This can easily be modeled and discussed as you read books together. While looking at the cover and reading the title together, you can share what you think the book will be about; or you can ask your child what he thinks. Before you turn the page in certain parts of the book, you can say, “I think … will happen next because…” or “What do you think will happen next?” Even the youngest of readers can do this.
Just recently, we borrowed a copy of Elmer and Rose by David McKee from the library. This was a book we had never read before {which is important for this comprehension strategy.} The story line is set up to keep readers guessing as to what color Rose’s herd is. I read to certain spot in the book that I had pre-planned, then I stopped. I asked my kids to predict what they thought would happen in the text, namely what color would Rose’s herd be.
MBug {age 4} guessed Gray. When I asked her why, she said because that was the color of Elmer’s herd.
NJoy {Kindergarten} guessed pink because Rose is pink. When I pressed a little further, he also mentioned that Rose said the gray elephants looked “strange”, so her herd was probably not gray.
Making and Changing Predictions
As readers grow in their understanding of making predictions, it is important to help them see that we constantly monitor our predictions, tweaking ours or making new ones entirely if necessary. This is an activity I did with my 3rd grader. While younger kids can do this too, all the writing it requires was of no interest to my Kindergartner.
To do this, I created a T-chart. The left side of the chart asks for predictions, while right side asks for justification of the predictions. {Why did you make that prediction?}
First, I modeled with Chester’s Way by Kevin Henkes, showing how I wanted him to think and use the printable T-Chart. By the end of the text, I was asking for his input, giving lots of support.
The next day, we used the text Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini. This time, I released more of the responsibility to him, but I was still there to offer support when needed. He started with the cover, making predictions about the book on the left side, then justifying predictions on the right side {using reasons from the book mixed with his background knowledge.} He did this throughout the entire book.
Once the book was over, we went back through his predictions on the left side of the chart. I said, “Let’s go through all your predictions and ask ourselves, ‘Was your prediction confirmed?'” If it was, he added a check. If it wasn’t, he crossed it out. His last prediction was never confirmed, so he included a question mark beside that one.
Making Predictions with Nonfiction Text
Making predictions is probably paired more with fiction, but readers can also predict with nonfiction. Below is simple activity reader can do before reading. As proficient readers, we automatically do this, but with younger readers, we have to make a switch to manual mode {out of automatic} so that they can “see” our thinking and hear our thoughts.
I modeled this with Hurricanes by Gail Gibbons and he did this with my help using a Discovery Kids book {like this one}, a book he had picked out at the library. For this activity to be effective, the text needs to have plenty of text features for the reader to use. While it doesn’t have to have all the text features mentioned in the list on top of the printable page, it needs to have a good number.
First, ask the reader to look through the text at the text features. {If the reader you’re teaching doesn’t understand what text features are, it would be good to start there first. I have several resources here.} Based on what he observes with various text features from the book, ask the reader to predict what he thinks the book will be about. Making predictions before reading with nonfiction {as well as fiction} is a great activity to help kids set a purpose for reading.
I feel like I’ve just shared a load of information in one post. And truth be told, I’ve just skimmed the surface of making predictions!
>>Download our FREE Making Predictions Pack HERE.<<
See all the posts in our Reading Comprehension Strategies series.
Enjoy teaching,
~Becky
Hi Becky! I think it’s great that you made a post about improving reading comprehension by making predictions. Research shows that one characteristic of a skilled reader is being able to make predictions based on context clues and background knowledge. Also, it is so important to emphasize that the purpose of reading is to understand and relate to text rather than just to pronounce the words on a page. Since you already started this strategy with your 4-year-old, I know that you really value that aspect of reading! One thing that I was uncertain of in your post was the use of the term “metacognition.” While it is typically defined as “thinking about thinking,” I’m not sure that this concept refers to “asking why.” While researchers themselves have a hard time pinning down one definition of metacognition, most definitions recognize (1) knowledge about cognition and (2) control over cognition. One example of a metacognitive reading strategy would be knowing how to make sure you understand and remember whatever you have read. So, making predictions and later checking to see if your predictions were confirmed (like you did with son) is actually a metacognitive strategy itself! It helps a reader self-monitor his or her progress in achieving the goal of understanding the story. While justifying why you made a certain prediction may not be metacognitive, asking what strategy you should use to better understand the text is! Research shows that with the support of parent or teacher modeling, kids as young as 4 can use these types of metacognitive reading comprehension strategies. In case you were wondering, all the research I am citing comes from “Metacognition, Learning, and Instruction” (McCormick et al., 2012). Also, since you are writing this series on reading comprehension strategies, I thought it would be worth mentioning that Willingham and Lovette (2014) make a very convincing argument that teaching students reading comprehension strategies does not actually improve general reading comprehension. This is because understanding any given text requires connecting meaning across sentences in the context of that particular content. This does not mean that we should not teach our students reading comprehension strategies, because they can still be useful tools for students to use when (metacognitively!) thinking about how to understand a text. But they do argue that we should not spend too much time teaching these, especially since many research studies show that kids are able to pick them up relatively easily and quickly. You might want to inform your readers of that fact, since it helps free up time to teach other things without sacrificing reading comprehension!
Thank you, Hannah for sharing your thoughts. It sounds like you’ve read a lot yourself. 🙂 While I would agree with you that many readers do pick up some of the comprehension strategies rather quickly, some kids do not. I’ve taught and tutored MANY of those children. These posts are meant to SHOW parents and educators HOW to teach these comprehension strategies, which are important for all readers to be able to do and explain their process.
I most certainly agree with prepping your texts before reading them. I love your posts! So informational, even for teachers! -Emily
Thank you very much! I found your tips very useful for my lesson 🙂
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you could use them! 🙂
Hi Becky,
Thank you for this post! I find it very helpful that you provided differentiated prediction activities. I am planning to use the first worksheet to start with for my TK/K Special Day Students. Thanks again!