Predicting

Predictions are a type of inference. When readers predict, they use their prior knowledge and what they know about the text to predict what will occur in parts of the text they have not yet read. Predicting helps students be active readers. Once students have made a prediction, they have a purpose for reading: to confirm or disprove their prediction.

The Digging Reading approach emphasizes students' predictions being plausible and making sense. As students share their predictions, you will almost certainly find that not all of them are correct. The important point about predictions is not whether they are right or wrong, but that students make reasonable predictions and have some basis for them.