“The kids stood outside the dark, empty house and stared. ‘What should we do?’ asked Jane.” This is from a story that I made up, but it is a good example of where you and your child need to stop and think. In the story, Jane asked a good question, what should they do? What would you do? What do you think will happen next? When I am reading with my kids at home, and we get to an exciting part, the end of a chapter, or the “cliffhanger,” I always ask them to make a prediction. I use those exact words. I say, “Make a prediction. What do you think will happen next in the story?” “What’s going to happen now that Ribsy is out of the car and in a parking lot, but he can’t find his family? Make a prediction. What do you think?” I asked this in the middle of chapter 1 of Ribsy by Beverly Cleary. We had a great conversation about what could logically happen next in the story. I try to steer my kids away from ridiculous predictions, like aliens are going to come and take him away. We call those distracting predictions, and they aren’t going to help us understand the story better. By making predictions, based on the story, it gives readers a reason to read more. It makes them want to keep reading to find out what happens next. You know what that’s like; it’s late and you really should turn out the light, but you have to find out what’s going to happen next! Predictions can be made in both fiction and nonfiction stories. It seems more natural in fiction stories, however. To start this kind of thinking, I often think aloud for my kids. I look at the cover, read the title and check out the back, then talk about what we might read about in the story. It gets their brains working, and sets them up to listen for specific things we might find in the story. For example, when I read a story about Charlie the Ranch Dog, I looked at the cover and talked about the type of dog I was going to read about. I made a guess that this dog probably works on a ranch, which is a type of farm. I wondered aloud if the farm had cows or horses. I asked the kids what they thought might happen. They guessed that Charlie was going to help round up the cattle. When we got to the part where Charlie does take part in a cattle drive, I commented that our prediction about Charlie was correct. I also pointed out that even if our prediction was incorrect, it was important that we did some thinking before reading. When reading nonfiction stories in school, I have my students write what they know about the subject before they start to read. It gets their brain thinking about robots, for example, before we start our book on robots. They make predictions about what they might learn in the story, based on the table of contents. All of this work can be done at home, in a conversation with your children. Don’t be afraid to talk about what you are thinking while you are reading aloud. Make your thinking alive for your children! This might not sound natural or it may even seem a little silly, but it does work. It’s not always natural to stop and think aloud about what might happen next in the story. However, as an adult reader, it’s something that happens automatically in your head. In order for your kids to do it, they need to see it in action. If you pay attention to what’s happening with your own thinking while you are reading to your kids, and point that out to them, it will become more natural for them when they are reading. Since I did this with a chapter book a few weeks ago, my five year old always reminds us to make a prediction at the end of the chapter. He got used to it when we read Ribsy. If he can do it with a little prompting from me, then you and your children can have these kinds of talks too! Happy Reading and Predicting!
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AuthorMy name is Laura Coffin, and I am the reading specialist at Lake Placid Elementary School. I have a BA from William Smith College and a M.Ed. in Reading from Lesley University. I also hold a Wilson Language Level I certification. I teach reading, writing and spelling strategies to help all students! Follow me on twitter @lgaetacoffin Archives
December 2017
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