Making Predictions (Part 2): Add Text Structure to “Preview & Predict”
Posted on September 9, 2025Share This Content
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Do your students’ predictions ever feel superficial? Thoughtful, text-based predictions can make a big difference in students’ comprehension of complex informational sources but frequently our students only make shallow predictions – predictions that don’t offer much bang for their buck. For example, take a look at the two predictions below. Why would the second one …Read more
“Turn and talk” has become a common practice in classrooms. But what’s really happening in those conversations? Frequently, we’ve noticed that students each share what they are thinking and then they are done. There is no intent to construct meaning, to explore each other’s ideas, to walk away with thinking that has been transformed in …Read more
Sentence frames are essential scaffolds for helping English language learners in our classrooms access the English language more easily. They help students determine what is important in a lesson or conversation – what they need to focus their energy on. They also make it easier for students to capture their thinking and contribute to discussions …Read more
Ever hunt for the perfect texts to teach “text structure” and end up just banging your head against the wall? It’s because texts are more complex than five simple structures, right? In this blog entry I describe an analogy I’ve started using with students to move us beyond this problem.
Identifying a text’s structure(s) can play a powerful role in comprehension. Knowing the five types of structures is not enough, though. Over several lessons and across time, we have to continually weave in discussions about the what, the why, the how. In part 1 of this series, I share the tools for teaching students to identify a text’s structure in a way that leads to understanding the main ideas in a source.
Preparation Select a text that has strong supporting/extending features – graphs, maps, photos and captions, etc. Locate 3-4 features that you can focus on during the Phase 2 part of the lesson. If you’re unsure whether the features are strong, think about how you might answer the questions posed in steps 1-3 on the ANCHOR …Read more
When we preview a text (or source) to make predictions about its content, recognizing clues about the text’s structure can launch us into making helpful predictions – predictions that can help us activate background knowledge and aid us in setting a clear purpose for reading and determining what is important in a source. Kid-friendly tool …Read more