Scaffolding Books through Predictions (Primary)

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What does the cover tell us about the story? What does the image on page 56 tell us about the characters’ relationship? What does this last word in the chapter tell you is going to happen in the next three chapters? Giving our students the chance to infer, make predictions, use critical thinking skills and visual clues, can augment their enthusiasm for reading from the outset. Combining this scaffold with a task-based (communicative) approach will help students interact with the book in dynamic, relevant and meaningful ways.

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Predicting leadsstudents to a faster recognition of facts later on, and so the ability to more quickly react, process and assimilate information.
This scaffold was created for a teacher I worked with, who suffered from traditional, teacher-centred training. Though very willing to introduce dynamic activities for his students, he did not know how to put his enthusiasm into practice, so, when a visitor entered his classroom, all the students were most likely sitting at individual desks, heads down, trying their best to understand the pages of a book they were expected to read, react to on their own, and all of this silently. If you were to ask one of the students what the pages were about, though they may have looked completely immersed in their reading beforehand, they would have had to admit that they had very little understanding either of the text or the overall concept of the book.