Ep 51: Making Predictions was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.
Hey, teachers, if you have a classroom and a commute, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Rachael, and I want to ride along with you each week on your ride into school. This podcast is the place for busy teachers who want actionable tips, simple strategies, and just want to enjoy their job more. Let's go.
Hello there and Happy New Year, it's officially 2021, which will be hard for me to remember to say. I'm one of those people, it usually takes a good month before I write the date correctly and I say it correctly, but it is 2021. I hope that you are starting your new year off on the right foot. Oh gosh, remember when we started 2020 and everybody was excited because Cinco de Mayo was going to be on Taco Tuesday, the 4th of July was on the weekend and Halloween was on a Saturday. We thought that 2020 was going to be OUR year. Well 2020 certainly didn't go as planned, that is for sure. Now, of course we can't predict what 2021 will bring but hopefully it will bring a lot more greater things than it did in 2020. The best we can do is take one day at a time, plan for what we know and pivot and adjust when things don't go according to plan.
Interestingly enough, today's topic is all about making predictions. Now, of course, it's not about making predictions of what the year will bring, but it's about how to make predictions when we are reading. A few months ago, I started a podcast series all about teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies. Each month we've been tackling a new Reading Comprehension Strategy and talking all about how to teach it, how to present it to your students, and some tips and ideas for how to have them practice it so that they begin to master these reading strategies. If you are just joining us on the podcast for the first time or two and you've missed any of those episodes, you can always go back and catch up. I talked about how to introduce Reading Comprehension Strategies as a whole in Episode 41, just to set the foundation and to give you some framework for how to begin this whole process in teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies. Then in Episode 42, I talked about how to teach making connections. In Episode 47, we talked about how to teach visualizing. We've got a few reading strategies under our belt so far. We're going to continue today with how to teach Making Predictions. Making connections, visualizing, and predicting are typically three of the easier strategies to teach your students. That's why I'm beginning with them but remember that although I am breaking up the strategies and teaching one strategy per episode. In Episode 41, I talked about the importance of presenting all reading strategies to your students up front right away so that they are familiarized with the name and they see you modeling for them how to use those strategies in conjunction with each other. Even if they're not ready to do that, they're seeing that modeled all the time through your read aloud and your instruction in small groups are whole class. There will come a time when you will need to break down the strategy and teach one at a time to kind of fine tune their use of it or to help out those students who are misusing it or just not using it at all. That's why we're going to break each strategy down one at a time here in the podcast. Again, I do encourage you to continue using them with each other at the same time when you're modeling reading instruction to your students.
Today we're going to attempt predicting and how to teach students to make predictions while they're reading. Now proficient readers, we make predictions naturally all the time without even knowing it, really. We predict what a book will be about based on the title. We predict why characters act a certain way and we make predictions about what we think is going to happen next when we get to the end of a chapter. Of course, we know that by doing this and making predictions, it keeps us engaged. It keeps us connected to the text. So, of course, we want to be able to teach this same strategy to our students. Whether or not you are brand new to teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies or if you have some experience with it and have done it for several years, let's all start on the same page and discuss some things that we all need to keep in mind before we teach the predicting reading strategy to our students.
Predicting requires the reader to do two things. One, they have to use clues that the author provides in the text. Two, they have to use what they know from personal experience or knowledge. We call this schema. When readers combine those two things, they can make relevant and logical predictions. Of course, when students make those predictions, we want them to be able to justify their thinking in their predictions. We want to hear that students draw from both the text and their own schema. Asking students to justify their predictions will keep them accountable for their thinking and help them to take their thinking deeper. We want our readers to make predictions before, during, and after we read. In fact, we want them to use all of their reading comprehension strategies before, during, and after.
Here are some things that they would do with the predictive reading strategy before, during, and after. Readers can predict what the book will be about, so they'll use the titles and the cover illustrations to help make those predictions. They can predict the author's purpose. Thinking, 'Is the author trying to convince us of something? Does the author want to teach us something?' And so on. They might predict future events in the book and of course, they're going to base these predictions on previous events or characters, words and actions. Students can also make predictions about why an author has included a specific text feature. What does it tell us? What does the author want me to learn from this and what does it help clarify? They might predict what they learn from the text or the section within a text by using titles, headings, and subheadings. Then, of course, when they get to the end of a chapter or an entire book, they're going to predict what's going to happen next or if it's the end of the book, they might make predictions about what would happen if the book were to continue. There's lots of different types of predictions that we want our students to make before, during, and after to keep their mind moving and keep them thinking about the text. We want students to know that predicting involves more than just trying to figure out what's going to happen next. In fact, predicting requires students to draw on a variety of secondary skills. As students look for evidence for their predictions. They're also asking themselves questions. Maybe they need to reread or recall information. They have to infer and draw conclusions so it really can build on other skills in order to make the most logical and relevant predictions. Of course, like all Reading Comprehension Strategies, making predictions helps set the stage for students to monitor their own comprehension. Making predictions naturally encourages the reader to want to continue to read 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 right on track. Using the prediction strategy correctly, truly will result in comprehending the text more fully.
All right, let's switch gears here and turn our focus to how to introduce the predicting reading strategy to your students. Now, the concept of predicting will most likely not be new to your students, but activating this skill while reading may take some practice since students might not be stopping on their own to make predictions. It's important that we teach them explicitly how to do so. You can do this with a really simple exercise. You're going to tell students that you're going to play a quick game that will require them to guess what you're going to do next in your school day. Explain that you're going to leave the room and then re-enter the room providing clues as to what you're going to do next. Here's two example scenarios that you might use when you re-enter your room. Grab a soccer ball or other playground equipment, put on your coat, grab your whistle and then have students guess what you're going to do next. They might guess that you're going out for recess. Or when you re-enter the room, you can go to your desk, pull out your current read aloud book that you're using and sit down where you would normally share your read aloud with your students, then have them predict what you're going to do next, which again is read aloud to the class. Whatever scenario you choose, when you're done having them make predictions, have them share those clues that they use to make their guesses. Explain that when students make a guess and they use clues, they are making predictions. Tell students that readers make predictions all the time in the books that they're reading by using clues that the author gives them and by using their own personal knowledge. In the cases above, it's likely that they've had some experience with what it looks like when you go out for recess or get ready for a read aloud. They're using their past information, their past knowledge, plus the clues that they're seeing right in front of them to make their predictions. I like this simple and easy example/scenario to help students get their mind into the idea of making predictions while they read. You can get into modeling how to make predictions while reading once students are in the mindset of making predictions. Begin modeling it through a read aloud, and of course, picture books always work great, even with older kids, because it helps you to model the strategy from start to finish within a single text. I will link to some of my favorite read aloud text for modeling this strategy in the show notes. If you just head over to classroomnook.com/podcast/51, you'll see the titles there and find them on Amazon if you want to.
Now to model the strategy, I'll choose a text that I know works great with making predictions. Of course I'm going to preview the text myself and plan for places to stop and model making predictions. Now when planning, one of the things that I always like to do is to write my predictions on a Post-it note and place them on the pages where I plan to share that prediction. This little teaching strategy works well with any reading strategy that you're teaching your students. It helps keep you on track during your mini lessons so you don't trail off. It helps you remember what predictions or whatever the reading strategy is that you want to share with your students. Now, in addition to planning ahead with my Post-it notes, I always also create an anchor chart with three columns. Now, in the first column it says 'My Prediction'. In the second column it says 'Text Evidence'. And in the third column it says 'Reflect, Revise, and Refine'. I fill this chart out with the students as I'm making my predictions so that I can show them how I am constantly forming new predictions. I'm using the text evidence to support my predictions. As I keep reading, sometimes I have to reflect on that. I have to revise and refine my thinking as I learn new information from the text. We don't want to teach students that making prediction is a one and done deal. We want hem to know that once they make a prediction, they are keeping that prediction in the forefront and referring to it, reflecting upon it and changing our thinking as we move forward. Like I said, while I'm reading the text to the students, I'll stop to discuss my predictions and I'll write the predictions on the chart under the 'My Predictions' column. You can also save time by taking a Post-it note that you maybe have prepared ahead of time and place on the page where you made your prediction and put that Post-it note up under the 'My Predictions' column. I always discuss why I made each prediction and then in the text evidence column, that second column, I record evidence from the text that helped inform my predictions. Then finally, as I read, I fill out the revise, refine, and reflect section for each prediction to note whether or not the predictions were correct and how it informed my thinking going forward. Explain that as you reflect on your predictions, sometimes you need to refine and even revise your predictions or your new predictions based on information that the author is giving you.
Let's see what this might look like in real life using this chart. I'm going to use the book. "Thank you, Mr. Falker" by Patricia Polacco. If you're not familiar with the book, it's essentially a book about a girl in fourth or fifth grade, I can't remember exactly. She has trouble reading. She has dyslexia, although the author doesn't really come right out and say that, you, as a teacher, know that she likely has dyslexia. For Trisha, reading is really, really hard. Kids make fun of her, but she has this teacher, Mr. Falker, who understands that she learns differently than the other students and comes up with some strategies to help her become a better reader. If I'm using this book as an example for how to make predictions while reading, one of my predictions might be as I begin reading that Trisha is not going to want to go to school anymore. My text evidence in my second column on my chart might say 'Tricia begins to feel different from the other kids because she can't read'. Another piece of text evidence might be 'they made fun of her and she said she began to feel dumb'. Then as I continue reading, I'm going to reflect and revise on that initial prediction. I might write something in my reflect, revise and refine column that sounds like this. 'At first my prediction was correct because Tricia didn't want to go to school when the other kids laughed at her. Then all that changed when Mr. Falker began to help her and she finally learned to read'. That's the reflection portion of my prediction. Then refine and revise might look something like this. 'Now, I think she's going to feel more confident at school'. You can see how my initial prediction made me think this but as I learned more about the character and the events, now I'm refining and revising my prediction, because now I think she is going to want to go to school because she feels more confident. Her teacher has helped her and she doesn't feel as dumb anymore because she knows that she has just to learn in a new way.
Now, there's always that moment after you taught a new strategy, you're ready to send your students off to try it out on their own. They look at you like a deer in headlights because they don't have any idea where to begin. It might be helpful to give your students a set of thinking prompts to help guide their predictions as they get started initially. Here's a few examples of some thinking problems that you might give to your students. One might be, I think 'blank' will happen because 'blank' or I bet or I'm guessing or since 'blank' happened, I think 'blank' will happen or I think the character will 'blank' because 'blank' and finally I think I will learn 'blank'. That will be a great thinking prompt for a nonfiction text and making predictions in non-fiction stories.
Another thing to focus on with students while making predictions is to help students make logical predictions, predictions that make sense to the story. Again, you're going to need to model this specifically. You're going to model both logical and not logical predictions. For example, when reading "Thank you, Mr. Falker". A logical prediction might be, since Tricia has been staying after school with Mr. Falker, I predict she'll finally learn how to read. A prediction that is not logical would be, I predict Tricia will read the book, "The Three Little Pigs". The second prediction doesn't have any text clues to form the prediction. Although it is about Tricia reading, nothing in the text suggests that reading "The Three Little Pigs" would be a logical prediction. Struggling readers often make predictions that are not logical just simply by choosing something remotely related to the topic or the event in the book. This is why it's important to not only rely on the text evidence, but to also continuously reflect, refine and revise the prediction based on the information that they're getting. You might take it a step further and have students explain their prediction by saying something like this prediction makes sense because in the story it says 'blank' or this is a logical prediction because...
One final note about modeling Making Predictions is that you want to make sure that you model predictions in both fiction and nonfiction texts. In fiction texts, you're going to help students make predictions about what the book is going to be about, what might happen next, what the character might say or do. In nonfiction texts, we want to help students make predictions about things like what they're going to learn from the text, what information will be included based on the headings and subheadings. They can make predictions about new content, words and why authors include certain text features.
Now, when you're ready to have students move into the individual and small group practicing of Making Predictions, I always feel it's important to give them simple visuals to remind them to use the strategy. Like I mentioned, in the making connections and visualizing episodes, things like bookmarks and small posters that you can put up and display around your classroom are always a great way to nudge your students to make predictions while reading. Just like the other two strategies that we've talked about so far, I have available for you in our Members Resource Library a free predicting bookmark that you can give to your students. On the bookmark are some helpful reminders of how students can make predictions before, during, and after reading, as well as some of those predicting thinking prompts that I mentioned earlier. If you want to get your hands on that free bookmark, just head over to the show notes at classroomnook.com/podcast/51. If you're not already a member, you can sign up there. If you are already a member, you can go directly to the Members Resource Library at classroomnook.com/resources, type in your password and you'll be good to go. It's in the Reading Resources section. In addition to giving my students a bookmark, I always have a poster with basically the same information that's on their bookmark, up on the wall somewhere so they always have it to reference even if they don't have their bookmark handy. Of course, you can likely guess what I'm going to say if you've been with me for a little while.
One of my most favorite ways to have students practice something new is by using a LINKtivity Interactive Learning Guide. I've got one for predicting as well, I will link to that predicting activity in the show notes. In the activity, students watch a kid-friendly video explaining the strategy. There's a virtual reading buddy that they read alongside with to help model the strategy. Then there's three high interest reading passages that the students can read on their own to again practice the strategy. It comes complete with a recording sheet so that they can be held accountable. You can see their predictions and you can see how they are applying the strategy to what they're reading. I know a lot of teachers are finding the activities helpful, especially now, because they are doing hybrid teaching or remote teaching altogether or a combination. This is a great way to help reinforce reading strategies, even if they can't be with them right there in the classroom. It's a great practice and great modeling even when the teacher can't be present.
And finally, the last piece of the puzzle. After you've modeled for your students. After they've had a chance to practice it in whole group and small group and individual settings. That final piece of the puzzle is assessment. Whether it's formal or informal, assessment drives instruction and it lets you know how each individual student is doing with a particular strategy, in this case, the Making Predictions strategy. There are a couple of things that I like to think about and look for when I'm assessing how a student is doing. First, it's important to note whether students are making predictions prompted or unprompted. Obviously, we want to get them to that point where they are not having to be prompted to make predictions and that it begins to feel natural for them. At the beginning stages, there will be a lot of prompting and that's okay. Of course, you want to make note of it so that you can get them to that unprompted stage where they're doing it on their own. Then you're going to check to make sure that their predictions use text evidence to support their predictions, whether they're using personal experiences to inform their predictions as well. We want to check to see if students are monitoring if their predictions are correct or incorrect. As they continue reading, that they check back in with themselves to see what the author has taught them about their predictions. Then lastly, that logical piece. We want to make sure that students are making predictions that makes sense and are relevant to the story.
All right, there you have it. We unpacked a lot when it comes to teaching and modeling how to make predictions while reading. Hopefully this episode has laid the groundwork for you so that you can go into your classroom with some clear instructions and some marching orders on how to model and teach the strategy to your students. Make sure you have checked out the other episodes in this series. Again, I will link to those episodes in the show notes on making connections as well as visualizing. Then be sure to keep checking back as each month I'm unpacking a new strategy. Next month we're going to cover Asking Questions. By the end of this school year in May, I think we'll about wrap up. When we've covered all seven reading strategies, you'll have a solid foundation for how to use them in your classroom.
All right, that is all for me today. I hope you have a great start to your week. I will be back again next week with another episode. Bye for now.
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