What's It All About?

For first and second graders who need practice with comprehension.

Predicting what the text may be about is a good way for children to produce questions that can guide their reading. Predicting can involve reading the titles of informational texts. Teaching a child to change a title into a question will support reading for a purpose. For example, if the title of a text is Jamaica Tag Along, a child might ask, "Who or what is Jamaica? Why does he or she want to tag along? Who does he or she want to tag along with?" Looking for the answers to their questions as they read helps children become active readers and involved in what they are reading. Modeling making predictions for a segment of the book will help children understand what you want them to do.

"Oh, I see, Jamaica is a little girl and she has a big brother. I bet she wants to go with her brother. I was right. She wants to go shoot baskets with him, but I don't think he will let her go."

" No, he doesn’t. He tells her to call her own friends. I bet she will find one of her friends to play basketball with."

"I guessed wrong. Jamaica is following her brother. Maybe she will get to play after all."

"Oh, no. They still won't let her play. Too bad. I see a little boy playing in the sand and some swings in the picture. Maybe Jamaica will find a playmate after all."

When reading aloud to children, stop and ask them what they think will happen next. When children are reading silently, ask them to stop after a page or two and guess what they think is going to happen next. Ask when they are through reading if their predictions matched the story.

Remember, predictions are never wrong. They may not match the story, but predictions can always be adjusted, and new ones can be made as children read.

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Copyright © 2005 by the National Center for Family Literacy. Produced by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) (325 W. Main Street, Suite 300, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-4237).