Prediction guides, also called anticipation guides, are a series of true/false statements about a topic that are closely tied to a text to be read. Their purpose is to activate what students know or think they know, and raise questions in students’ minds to be answered by reading.
This activity is intended to activate students background knowledge and generate questions. There is no assumption that they know the correct answers yet. Students work independently on the prediction guide and make their best guess, then share their answers with a partner.
It’s not necessary to go over the correct answers before moving into the rest of the lesson, but it is a good idea to read the statements aloud and take a quick verbal poll to see which statements students believe are true or false. We suggest counting votes and noting true, false and unsure under each statement.
At the end of the class, you can go back to the prediction guide to see if students can confirm what is true and false, based on the materials you have looked at as a class. A final assignment might be to ask students to rewrite false sentences to make them true. For example, students might rewrite…
Earth is about 500 million years old.
as…
Earth is about 4.6 billion years old.
