Learning Targets
Students will:
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Read a short text excerpt related to a specific topic or upcoming lesson
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Make a prediction about the topic
Home-School
Connection:
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Encourage students to read a snippet of the daily news or a story they’re enjoying to a member of their household and ask them to predict what it’s about.
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Have students take the activity one step further and ask them to draw an image or emoji of how reading the snippet made them feel, or write 1-2 words that describe their emotions.
How To
Before Activity:
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Select a short piece of text that will spark curiosity and a sense of anticipation, considering each student’s language levels.
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Provide students with the snippet, graphic organizer, and directions prior to meeting. Review the expectations of the activity via an email, text message, or phone call.
During Activity:
Synchronous setting:
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Establish a time and place to meet as a group.
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Display the snippet online and provide students with time to jot notes in the graphic organizer about their predictions of the upcoming lesson.
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Students share predictions with the group, referring to the text to support their thoughts.
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Present the text in its entirety and have students review and evaluate predictions made from the snippet.
Asynchronous Setting:
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Decide how students will share their completed organizer: email, online classroom, or with a member of their household.
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Suggest that students highlight any cognates to facilitate comprehension, and review definitions of critical vocabulary.
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Students can share their predictions with the teacher via email, text, a phone call, or a photo of the document. They may also share their responses with a friend or a member in their household.
Quick Tips
- You might record yourself modeling your thought process using an example snippet as you make a prediction.
Evidence of Success
- Students refer back to the snippet to support their predictions.
Watch Out!
- Be sure the snippet of text is comprehensible when read independently or provide differentiated text to students according to their language proficiency.
Support Suggestions
High
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Create or find an audio recording of the snippet for students to listen to as they read.
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Prepare sentence frames students can use to make their prediction either orally or in written form.
Moderate
- Prepare sentence frames that will assist students in joining two sentences to explain their prediction even more clearly.
Light
- Challenge students to write a paragraph explaining their prediction.