Predicting and Summarizing leads to Comprehenders

Shea Fant
Reading to Learn

Predicting and Summarizing;
leads to Comprehension

BY: Shea Fant Rationale: It is very important that children have daily reading practice, especially silent reading. It is important to not only have them practice through silent reading, but to actually use other skills to demonstrate that they comprehend what they are reading. Demonstrating skills such as predicting or summarizing proves that they comprehend. To take it a step further, have them compare their predictions to demonstrate that they actually understand the differences between what really happened and what they predicted. Having them to predict will help them to get excited about what they are reading and then summarizing after proves that they understand what they read. However, being able to predict demonstrates an understanding also, because in order to predict, they must understand what has been going on previously.
Materials: Page-turner books to read-a-loud such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The children must have books to use for silent reading, so you must have books available for them in case they have forgotten or misplaced or finished their book. Copies of the same book for them to read, make sure to have one for each child. (I used the read-a-loud book for the passage, but any level appropriate text would work!) You the teacher must also have an SSR book and have read it and be prepared to use it to model what to do. This book should be one they will understand, so it would be great to reread some of your old favorites from when you were in their grade, in order to get them excited about them when you share your readings.( I used Charlotte’s Web, By E.B. White, but any page turner or series would work such as the Ramona Books By: Beverly Cleary) Paper and pencils and of course a chalk board.
Procedure:
1. Boys and Girls it is now time for Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). Does everyone remember how we used our predicting skills yesterday before we read on in our Read-A-Loud book. (This is a chapter book that is a page-turner that I read to the children every day) Let’s review what we did! We predicted how we thought Charlie, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, would get a hold of a Golden Ticket. Some of you had ideas that were similar and some were very different, some were correct and some were incorrect. We found that it did not matter if we were right or wrong, but that it is just important that we are using our brain to brainstorm ideas from our readings. So Today before you read silently I want you to write down 2-4 sentences predicting what will happen next in your book, before you read silently. For example yesterday, I predicted that Charlie might find a Wonka bar on the ground that was still wrapped that had a golden ticket inside. All you have to do is write two sentences similar to this.
2. Boys and Girls did you all enjoy your silent reading today? I am so anxious to hear of your predictions and how the events actually happened. We are now going to break into our literature discussion groups and discuss what happened in our SSR books today. Today I read in my book Charlotte’s Web by, E.B. White, what the second word that Charlotte wove in the web today. I knew I was about to read that, so I want to share what my prediction was, it was that she would weave the word Super into her web, but she actually wove the word Terrific. By Charlotte weaving this word into her Web, this is continuing to keep Wilbur from being killed for food. The owner of the farm has now decided to enter Wilbur in the fair since he is so “Terrific.” Boys and Girls what I have done is called summarizing. I have summarized the pages and sequence of events that happened in the many pages I read today in my SSR book. I was able to do this in just a few sentences I retold what I read, leaving out all the unimportant details. We can now also compare how correct or incorrect I was according to my prediction. I looked in the Thesaurus and found that Super and Terrific are synonyms, or words that mean the basic same thing. So, although I did not predict the exact word that Charlotte wove, I was on the right track. In your SSR discussion groups, when you tell what is happening you are summarizing the events just as I just modeled for you. Today you are going to take your prediction with you to the group and after you all tell what happened or summarize what you read, I want you to read what you predicted and I want you to have the person sitting to your right to tell you how it was similar and/or different, as I have demonstrated. Now break into your groups. The teacher should walk around to the groups of 4 and listen to what they are saying and mentally assess what is happening as they interact with each other.
3. Now have the students return to their seats. Today, before proceeding further with the Read-A-loud book, have a copy of the book for each child. Have the children reread the last 1-2 pages you read the previous day and to predict what they think will happen next as they did earlier with their SSR Book and their Read-A-Loud book yesterday. Make sure they write down their prediction, so you will have something to assess. Then have them read either the next 5 or so pages silently and find out what actually does happen. Then have them to summarize as you and the children did earlier, but this time have them to write it down. Remind them it should be very short and that you are leaving out all the unimportant details. After they have written down their summary you should read your prediction and summary and then write on the board a similarity or difference from your prediction as opposed to what actually happened. This should get them started to thinking of what was similar or different about their prediction. Then have them to write what they think is a similarity or difference between what they have predicted. Remind them that there are no incorrect answers when predicting.
4. For an extra form of assessment have the students come and share what they predicted and how it was different or similar to what actually happened. This will demonstrate not only an understanding of comprehension, but that they can summarize leaving out the unimportant details. After they share have them turn in their paper where they wrote what they just wrote.
5. For more review… Boys and Girls who can tell me what it means to predict? It means that before we read, we think, not only about what will come next, but how it will happen. What does it mean to summarize? It means that we can retell the story , leaving out all the unimportant details. If we can do these two steps when reading and then compare what really and what actually happened, that means we are COMPREHENDING!, which is our ultimate goal for reading!

Reference: http://www.scholastic.com/lessonrepro

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