Reading Strategy: Predicting…

Predicting is another reading strategy to help readers better understand what they are reading. Predicting is one of the easiest strategies because we do it naturally..

Before you read, ask yourself what the book is about by using preview strategies. Look at the title, front cover, back cover, and inside cover, pictures, and captions.

During reading, ask yourself what will happen next based on the information you have already been given. You can predict about characters, places, events, and more.

After reading, ask what would happen next if the story continued. This is always fun for me. I enjoy taking the story to the next level in my mind. If you are reading nonfiction, you can predict what will be the next step in the process or what would happen if the author did it a different way.

Predicting is a natural part of human behavior, but it also helps to better understand text. Next time you pick up a book, write your predictions at the end of the chapter and check to see if they come true. Interact with the text!

EXAMPLE: The grey clouds covered the sky. Strong winds blew through the trees. A loud rumble roared through the air. A crack flashed.

Prediction: You can predict a storm is coming based on the evidence in the text.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Step into futuristic America where hunger, disease, war, and even death have been conquered and government is run by the “thundercloud.” Neal Shusterman’s first book in his “Arc of a Scythe” trilogy is a very realistic account of what could happen if technology eliminates natural death.

Apprentice scythes are chosen by master scythes to learn the art of killing to contain overpopulation around the world. These scythes wear long robes with hoods and are highly feared and respected. It is there job to choose who they will kill and how they will kill.

Citra and Rowen, two teens who have been chosen to become scythes, have been forced to fight against each other with the winner becoming a scythe and the loser going home. They not only fight their own emotions about being scythes, but also fight an underground network of evil scythes who want even more power and autonomy. This book is full of action and leaves you wanting to read more. I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy: Thunderhead and The Toll.

The Lightening Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Perseus Jackson is an ordinary teenage boy with dyslexia and ADHD–or so he thought. Getting kicked out of schools was his specialty.  Attending his latest school, Percy made friends with Grover and Annabeth, and his Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner. On a field trip to a museum specializing in Greek artifacts, Percy finds out he is more special than he ever knew when he is tested by the one of the three Greek furies.  Amazingly, he defeated this monster and learned that his best friend, who was actually a satyr, and favorite teacher, who was a centaur, were sent to protect him from the mythical world that was chasing him. 

Percy ends up at Camp Halfblood after he narrowly escapes death from a minotaur and discovers that he is being chased for stealing Zeus’ thunderbolt and forced to go on the quest of a lifetime. How will Percy come out? Will he be a great hero? Come with Percy on his journey that reveals who he is and his purpose in life. This is an excellent book full of adventure and mythology.