Making Predictions Worksheets

Making Accurate Predictions While Reading

Teaching students to make accurate forecasts while reading is an essential comprehension skill to learn and practice. Making the previsions requires students to anticipate what will happen in a text or judge what the topic is about by applying and recalling their prior knowledge. This improves their memory skills.

If you are a frequent and skilled reader, making predictions while reading will naturally come to you; however, it can be a struggle for students who are just developing the habit of reading.

Therefore, teachers need to incorporate this comprehension skill in-class lessons to allow students to make accurate forecasts and enjoy the process of reading.
We have put together a simple guide that will allow students to make accurate foresight while reading. First, let's understand what it means to make predictions during the reading process and why it is essential to do so! Read along to find out.

What it Means to 'Making Predictions' While Reading

Making forecasts while reading allows the reader to use the information from what they are reading carefully, which includes titles, headings, pictures, symbols and diagrams, and combine or relate this information to their prior knowledge or experiences to predict or anticipate what will come next.

The more students read and practice this skill, the more likely they will make accurate predictions. Making predictions allows the reader to focus and concentrate on the details and clues in the text, which engages their brains and allows them to strengthen connections and build new ones.

Importance of Making Accurate Predictions While Reading

Readers often use the ability to make forecasts to monitor their comprehension. Skilled readers can make predictions naturally. They can judge what the book will be about by reading the title or assessing the reasons behind the characters behaving the way they are and even predict what will come next in the series of events. Here are some reasons why making forecasts is a beneficial skill to have.

1. Engages and Activates the Mind

Making predictions while reading is a great make to keep the mind engaged and activated in something productive. This increases focus and takes you away from negative thoughts, reducing stress levels. It allows your brain to draw from patterns or past knowledge, revising your memory.

Making accurate forecasts gives the reader confidence in prior knowledge and encourages them to make more accuracte foresight in the future. It is exciting to anticipate what might happen next in what you are reading based on your knowledge. This encourages people to read more and improve their reading and comprehension skills.

2. Ability to Choose Reading Material of Interest

Once you are confident about making predictions, you will be able to anticipate what a book will be about by reading its title or quickly going over the introductory remarks. This will help you pick out the reading material you will enjoy, rather than going through the hassle of selecting a book only to leave it halfway. If you are confident about the reading material you are selecting or buying, you will be more enthusiastic about reading it and having fun doing so!

3. Allows for Active Interaction with the Text

Making predictions while reading allows the reader to actively read and interact with the text. This encourages them to stay focused and engaged in the reading to determine if the thoughts that they made were accurate. If the reader finds out, they mistake predicting what comes. Next, they can revise and improve their predictions.

4. Monitor One's Comprehension Skills

Making predictions allows the reader to monitor their comprehension skills and assess how well they can judge the outcome of something by looking at minor details like the title or pictures. Actively making predictions allows the reader to reflect upon, revise, and refine their prediction, which improves their reading and comprehension skills.

5. Encourages Reader to Think Ahead

Making predictions allows the reader to think ahead, understand the story better, make appropriate connections and ask questions.

The ability to think ahead and anticipate what may happen is a skill that is often required in real-life situations as it encourages you to understand why something happened the way it did and things to look out for in the future. Asking meaningful questions while reading is a great way to improve your ability to make predictions.

6. Increases Interest in Reading

It is natural for you to be interested in what you are reading to confirm your predictions. You feel a slight sense of accomplishment when you realize what you had predicted is actually what happened in the story. Be careful not to give out too many story spoilers to your friends!

Tips on Making Accurate Predictions While Reading

Here are ways in which students can be encouraged to make predictions while reading to improve their comprehensions skills.

1. Use the clues provided by the author in the text and link those clues with your past experiences or knowledge to make accurate, relevant and logical predictions.

2. Practice! Select the text that works great for making predictions, and then create an anchor chart for recording predictions. You can use the following template:

My Predictions	Evidence In the Text	Reflections and Revisions

3. Think out loud! Discuss your predictions with your teacher or friend to gain a new perspective.

4. Use sticky notes and paste your predictions on a chart. In the end, review your predictions and assess how many were accurate and rate yourself.

5. Model making predictions in non-fiction texts as well as it allows you to predict what you might learn from the text and why authors have included certain features in the text.

Concluding Thoughts

Making predictions while reading is an essential skill to have as it allows you to anticipate what is going to happen next in what you are reading. This engages your mind, encourages you to think ahead, and actively interact with the text while engaging your brain and allowing it to focus. Practice your prediction skills by reading more, reviewing your predictions and then revising them accordingly.