Focus on First Lines: Increasing Comprehension through Prediction Strategies

1. Explain that you'll be starting the class or unit by looking at first sentences (or first lines, in the case of poetry) from works that you'll be reading during the class or unit. For each of the sentences, students will make predictions for the story based on what they see in the first sentence.
   
   
2. Either pass out copies of the Recording Sheet, or display the chart with an overhead projector so that students can copy the headings into their journals or notebooks. Students will need a copy of the sheet for each quotation, or they can use one copy as a model and work on their own paper.
   
   
3. Discuss the meaning of each of the headers, to ensure that students understand the requirements.
   
   
4. Ask students to look at the Table of Contents in their literature books, and orient them to the information that they can gather from the unit headings. For instance, point to information about time periods, literary movements, and genre information that might help students as they choose categories for the quotations.
   
   
5. Emphasize that you do not expect-you do not even want-students to page through the textbook and search frantically for each line. Explain that they only have a couple of minutes to read, think about, and make their predications for each quotation.
   
   
6. Project the online Think-Aloud Predictions for "Young Goodman Brown" and work through the procedure for thinking of each of the words by clicking on and sharing the think-aloud details listed. Alternatively, students can work individually or in small groups and explore the interactive on their own to get a sense of the kind of exploration and thinking that is expected for the activity.
   
   
7. Once you've read through all of the information in the interactive, or students have fully explored it on their own, project the Recording Sheet Sample and reinforce the final information that students are to record on their sheets or in their notebooks or journals for each quotation.
   
   
8. Explain that students should be ready to volunteer the ideas for their predictions, just as was demonstrated for "Young Goodman Brown."
   
   
9. Pass out the Opening Lines handout for American Literature, British Literature, Contemporary American Literature, World Literature, or Young Adult Literature, or hand out the opening lines that you have selected from your readings. If desired, project a copy of the handout on an overhead transparency for modeling.
   
   
10. Remind students that there is not a "right" or "wrong" way to make predictions about a text, but emphasize that readers should be able to support their predictions from the information in the sentence.
    
    
11. When students have made their predictions, go through the quotations with the entire class, discussing the variety of responses.
    
    
12. Ask student volunteers to share their predictions. After students share their preliminary ideas, follow up by asking if there are other predictions as well as asking other students to share similar and differing predictions for each quotation.
    
    
13. As discussion naturally allows, draw attention to writing terms, such as word choice and sentence style, and literary terms, such as metaphor and alliteration.
    
    
14. Ask students to save their predictions, explaining that you will return to them when you read each of the texts that the quotations came from in class.

1. As you cover each text that you have included in your opening activity in class, focus pre-reading on students' original predictions by asking students to review their Recording Sheets. Students might work in groups or individually.
   
   
2. Ask students to note any changes or additions to their predictions in their journals before reading the text.
   
   
3. Cover the stories in your class sessions as you would any other reading, completing any comprehension and discussion activities that are appropriate for your students.
   
   
4. Encourage students to return to their original predictions after reading the text, assessing their original predictions and building evidence to support those predictions which are accurate. Alternately, students can create new predictions as well.
   
   
5. Have students review the explanations they made at the beginning of the term in support of their predictions.
   
   
6. Ask them to identify any differences between the explanations for accurate predictions and explanations for predictions that didn't match the text.
   
   
7. Overall, the discussion of the original prediction and the first line of the text should take no more than 5 minutes for each text. Place the focus exploring the full text, not just its first line.
   
   
8. As you read texts, encourage students to use their prediction skills at other points in their reading. Explore all the aspects of a text that Beers suggests that skilled readers investigate: cover, art, title, genre, author, headings, graphs, charts, length, print size, front flaps, and back covers.
   
   
9. Be sure to connect discussion of foreshadowing for the works to the prediction strategy. Periodically, also ask students to reflect on their prediction process before reading the text. Ask students to write in their journals or notebooks in response to prompts such as "How has your process of making predictions changed since the beginning of the class?"

Extend your exploration of prediction strategies to all the readings that you do in the course, encouraging students to connect their prior knowledge to the texts they encounter. The following questions can guide your explorations:

• What predictions would you make about this book (short story, poem, etc.) based on its title?
  
  
• How does your knowledge of the time period and/or the author affect what you expect to find in this story?
  
  
• What predictions would you make based on the first line?
  
  
• What can you tell about the story by looking at the table of contents (or the chapter titles)?
  
  
• Based on your reading to this point, what predictions would you make for the rest of the piece? (In other words, at the end of the first chapter, first paragraph, and so forth, what predictions would you make for the text?
  
  

Be sure to emphasize that the point is not to guess "right" answers, but to strengthen reading skills by focusing on what an author's word choice and other elements tell a reader.