Working on Predicting

One of our focuses in reading lately has been predicting what might happen in the text.  When readers make predictions, they are focused on what is happening in the text.  Readers are able to take what is happening in the book, add it to their background knowledge and make a prediction as to what happens next.

We've been talking about predictions that make sense, and boy have I been impressed!  The class seems to get that making a prediction that actually might happen is key.  We've been working on knowing that it's okay for predictions to be wrong--we just have to make sure we find out whether our predictions came true in the text.

Readers can make predictions using any book, and we make predictions on every book we've read. When reading all of the gingerbread man books, we were able to predict what might happen based on knowing the other stories we've read.  These books were a few of our favorites in helping us learn to make predictions while we read:

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey is a great book to work on predictions while reading the text.  If you are familiar with the story, you'll know that the actions of Sal and the Little Bear mirror each other, which makes it easier to make connections and predict what will happen next.

Wolf's Coming by Joe Kulka is another book where students can easily make predictions based on what they already know.  It has a surprising ending which makes checking our predictions fun because then we can go back and look at the clues we might have missed.

Suddenly! by Colin McNaughton is just a fun book.  We were able to make many correct predictions, especially when we noticed the author's style and pattern.

We will continue talking about making predictions all year.  When reading at home, see what predictions your child can make and don't forget to see if he or she was correct.  Happy reading!