Anticipation Guide: A Pre-Reading Strategy

1. Anticipation Guide: A Pre-Reading Strategy Presented by Jamelia Alnajjar, Addy Heckert, Lisa Horton, and Courtney McCready

2. There’s bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don’t have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway. A group of misfits brought together by T. J. Jones (the J is redundant), the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to find their places in a school that has no place for them. T.J. is convinced that a varsity letter jacket–exclusive, revered, the symbol (as far as T.J. is concerned) of all that is screwed up at Cutter High–will also be an effective tool. He’s right. He’s also wrong. Still, it’s always the quest that counts. And the bus on which the Mermen travel to swim meets soon becomes the space where they gradually allow themselves to talk, to fit, to grow.

3. What can you guess about who the main characters will be? • What do you think some of the main themes will be? • Do you have a sense of what to expect or look for as you read this story?

4. Proficient readers use many strategies to prepare them for engaging with a book. Struggling readers don’t have access to those strategies – they need support!

5. Pre-Reading strategies help struggling readers to: • access their prior knowledge • interact with portions of the text prior to reading • practice sequencing, find cause and effect relationships, draw comparisons, make inferences, and predict • identify vocabulary that might be a problem • construct meaning before they begin reading the text (Beers, p. 74)

6. Anticipation Guides • activate students’ prior knowledge • encourage students to make a personal connection to what they will be reading • give students a chance to become an active participant with the text – before they begin reading (Beers, p. 74)

7. A Step By Step Teaching Model for the Classroom 1. Introduce the rationale for anticipation guides. 2. Using a think-aloud, explicitly model how to proceed through the first column of an anticipation guide. 3. In pairs, allow for guided practice of the second statement. 4. Students will independently practice on the third statement. 5. Read the story/poem excerpt. 6. Students will complete the post reading statements. 7. Debrief/discuss the before and after reading statements in the large group.

8. Anticipation Guide Debriefing

9. Discussion • Did your answers to the anticipation guide change after reading the text? • If yes, in what way? • If no, why not? Were your original answers strengthened?

10. Discussion • Did completing the anticipation guide change the way you responded to reading the text? • If yes, in what way? • If no, why not?

11. Discussion • Did you feel that the anticipation guide prepared you for reading the text? • If yes, in what way? • If no, why not? How could it have better prepared you?

12. Creating an Anticipation Guide • Identify the major themes presented in the text by reading the passage and deciding what deserves attention. • Look for themes that will challenge students’ beliefs or link to prior knowledge.

13. Creating an Anticipation Guide Cont’d • Create three to five statements that challenge or support any preconceived notions students probably have about the key themes presented. • Arrange the statements (with appropriate directions) on an overhead transparency, chalkboard, or worksheet. Leave spaces to the left of each statement for students to respond.

14. Activity • Try creating your own anticipation guide. • Debrief

15. Thank you!