20 Making Predictions

Chapter & Discussion

This chapter includes a presentation that can be navigated in a classroom setting or independently. You can access the presentation via the link below.

Strategy Four: Making Predictions

Work through the different sections of the chapter and discuss ideas and topics as they arise. If you’re working independently, take notes instead. Notes and active discussion will be helpful in navigating this week’s assignments.

Overview

One important metacognitive reading strategy is to make predictions about what will happen next in a reading. This will help you to keep track of the relevant information and help you make use of it. Predictions help make connections between new knowledge and what you already know.

One interesting thing about this strategy is that it doesn’t matter if your prediction is right or wrong. The fact that you made a prediction helps you to activate your scientific thinking, improves your memory, and helps you constantly “keep score” when you read. All of this greatly improves comprehension.

Building Connections

Making predictions activates our prior knowledge before reading, which helps us better understand the new information we will encounter in the text. Activating relevant prior knowledge provides a foundation for making connections to new information.

Making predictions prompts readers to draw on their experiences related to the topic at hand. This activation of prior knowledge serves as a foundation for understanding new information. By connecting what they already know with the text, readers are better equipped to comprehend and make sense of the material.

Scientific Thinking

The process of making predictions encourages us to think actively during reading, rather than just passively receiving the information. We naturally make predictions as we read. By stopping regularly to predict, we are engaged in active reading rather than passive reception.

The process is very similar to when we use the scientific method. It requires gathering evidence and identifying patterns to make reasonable predictions about future events. It involves logical thinking to take what is known and make an inference about what is likely to occur. The process parallels forming hypotheses in science based on observations. And, there is an emphasis on testing predictions to see if they are correct, similar to scientists testing hypotheses through investigation.

Taking an Active Role

Checking whether predictions come true motivates students to read further and monitor their comprehension. The anticipation of checking predictions motivates students to continue reading.
Prediction activities, especially when combined with explicit verification during reading, improve students’ overall comprehension and memory for what they read.

Making predictions also helps focus students’ attention on the key content and structure of the text. When readers make predictions, they read with a specific purpose in mind: to confirm or adjust their predictions based on the unfolding information. This purposeful reading keeps them actively engaged, focused, and motivated to extract relevant details from the text. It transforms reading from a passive activity into an interactive and goal-oriented process.

Assigned Reading

Here are this week’s readings. Additionally, please read for your own personal enjoyment for 1/2 hour each day. This will be called your “Reading Zone” reading and it will coincide with many upcoming activities.

Short Films to Teach Story Elements Playlist