Strategy 5: Anticipation Guide/Prediction Guide

Level of Expertise:  6

What is the instructional strategy?   An anticipation guide is used to help aid students' comprehension both before and while they read.  A quality Anticipation Guide usually has between 4-6 statements (Billmeyer & Barton, 1998).   The reading passage I am assigning in the  Mathematics Course 2 textbook (pp. 278-280) will serve as an introduction to the concept of slope at the start of the unit.    I am also using this guide to draw their attention to the way the information is presented (text structure) as well as the content in the passage.  

Why does the strategy work?
Having my students use this guide to focus and direct their thinking-before-reading as well as their -thinking-while-reading helps to make sure that they do not miss any of the key explication used to define the concept of slope.   Also, the guide provides questions which requires them to carefully consider the information rather than just gloss over the text.  
At the same time, I know the students have been using Anticipation Guides in their Social Studies class and I want to capitalize on the strategic reading habits they are being encouraged to develop in another class.   Also, I want them to recognize that even though both their S.S. text and their math text are expository texts; the information is often presented in very different ways.   

How does it work?
1. I begin by determining the important concepts students should learn from reading and thinking about which of the concepts challenge or support students’ knowledge about the topic (i.e., determining slope).

2. Next, I developed a list of six statements that challenge students’ knowledge about the concept of slope. I made sure to design statements which refer to important details, major ideas, debatable topics, or misunderstandings. However, I also made a point to refrain from including literal questions.

3. When I give students the guide I will be sure to encourage honest answers. I will ask students to respond to the statements in the "YOU column" individually first.  Then, depending on the "climate" (Billmeyer & Barton, 1998) of the class, I may give them the opportunity to talk over their initial responses in pairs.

4.  After students have confirmed their answers in the YOU column, then I will again ask them to read the passage independently first.   I will encourage students use the anticipation guide to focus their attention while they are reading.   
I will also encourage the students to keep the question posed in the BONUS QUESTION in the back of their mind while reading, but this should not be answered until after they have finished with the AUTHOR column.

5.  When students have completed the selected reading, ask them to complete the anticipation guide again based on information from the reading. Ask students to rewrite false statements at this time.

6.  Discuss what the students have learned from the reading.  Note:  I am particularly interested in what they say in response to prompt #6. I want to make sure they understand the "specialized use" (Fisher & Frey,2008) of the term rise.  I am curious to see if they can distinguish between what it means to arise and to rise in this context.  
NOTE regarding BONUS QUESTION:   As I said in Step 4, I also designed a BONUS QUESTION to draw their attention not only to the content in the passage, but the text structure.  I want my students to understand that simply because math problems are included does not mean that the text is structured in a way that presents "problem-solution."  Instead, the math text most often is developed using the description and the chronological order expository text structures.    

WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE: 

Directions: 
In the column labeled YOU, place an X next to any statement with which you 

agree. After reading pages 278-280 in Mathematics Course 2 consider the column

labeled AUTHOR, and place an X next to any statement with which the text agrees.

   YOU      AUTHOR

  ___X___   ___X___ 1. The “rise” of a line is related to the y-axis.

  _______   _______ 2. Negative and positive lines have the same slopes.

  ___X___   ___X___ 3. The slope of a vertical line is zero.

  ___X___   _______ 4. A graph with a constant rate of change is a curved line.

  _______   ___X___ 5. Parallel lines have equal slopes.

  _______   ___X___ 6. You have to run before you rise.

BONUS QUESTION

     YES        NO

  ______   ___X___ 1. The passage you just read would be identified as  using a 

                            problem-solution expository text structure.  

Math textbook Reference:
Charles, R.I., Branch-Boyd, J., Illingsworth, M., Mills, D., Reeves, A. & Thompson, D.R. (2004). Mathematics Course 2.  Needham, MA:  Pearson:  Prentice Hall.