Test your understanding of the Making Predictions metacognitive reading strategy
Learning Objectives:
Overview:
One important metacognitive reading strategy is to make predictions about what will happen next in a reading. This will help you to keep track of the relevant information and help you make use of it. Predictions help make connections between new knowledge and what you already know.
One interesting thing about this strategy is that it doesn't matter if your prediction is right or wrong. The fact that you made a prediction helps you to activate your scientific thinking, improves your memory, and helps you constantly "keep score" when you read. All of this greatly improves comprehension.
Building Connections:
Making predictions activates our prior knowledge before reading, which helps us better understand the new information we will encounter in the text. Activating relevant prior knowledge provides a foundation for making connections to new information.
Making predictions prompts readers to draw on their experiences related to the topic at hand. This activation of prior knowledge serves as a foundation for understanding new information. By connecting what they already know with the text, readers are better equipped to comprehend and make sense of the material.
Scientific Thinking:
The process of making predictions encourages us to think actively during reading, rather than just passively receiving the information. We naturally make predictions as we read. By stopping regularly to predict, we are engaged in active reading rather than passive reception.
The process is very similar to when we use the scientific method. It requires gathering evidence and identifying patterns to make reasonable predictions about future events. It involves logical thinking to take what is known and make an inference about what is likely to occur. The process parallels forming hypotheses in science based on observations. And, there is an emphasis on testing predictions to see if they are correct, similar to scientists testing hypotheses through investigation.
Taking an Active Role:
Checking whether predictions come true motivates students to read further and monitor their comprehension. The anticipation of checking predictions motivates students to continue reading. Prediction activities, especially when combined with explicit verification during reading, improve students' overall comprehension and memory for what they read.
Making predictions also helps focus students' attention on the key content and structure of the text. When readers make predictions, they read with a specific purpose in mind: to confirm or adjust their predictions based on the unfolding information. This purposeful reading keeps them actively engaged, focused, and motivated to extract relevant details from the text. It transforms reading from a passive activity into an interactive and goal-oriented process.
Afterward, when she thought about it, it seemed to Winnie that the next few minutes were only a blur. First she was kneeling on the ground, insisting on a drink from the spring, and the next thing she knew, she was seized and swung through the air, open-mouthed, and found herself straddling the bouncing back of the fat old horse, with Miles and Jesse trotting along on either side, while Mae ran puffing ahead, dragging on the bridle.
Winnie had often been haunted by visions of what it would be like to be kidnapped. But none of her visions had been like this, with her kidnappers just as alarmed as she was herself. She had always pictured a troupe of burly men with long black moustaches who would tumble her into a blanket and bear her off like a sack of potatoes while she pleaded for mercy. But, instead, it was *they*, Mae Tuck and Miles and Jesse, who were pleading.
"Please, child…dear, dear child…don't you be scared." This was Mae, trying to run and call back over her shoulder at the same time. "We…wouldn't harm you…for the world."
"If you'd…yelled or anything"—this was Jesse—"someone might've heard you and…that's too risky."
And Miles said, "We'll explain it…soon as we're far enough away."
Winnie herself was speechless. She clung to the saddle and gave herself up to the astonishing fact that, though her heart was pounding and her backbone felt like a pipe full of cold running water, her head was fiercely calm. Disconnected thoughts presented themselves one by one, as if they had been waiting their turn in line. "So this is what it's like to ride a horse—I was going to run away today anyway—what will they say when I'm not there for breakfast—I wish the toad could see me now—that woman is worried about me—Miles is taller than Jesse—I'd better duck if I don't want this next branch to knock me off."