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What is an Anticipation Guide?

Anticipation guides are used before reading. They are usually composed of generalized questions or statements that come from the text or passage that you want the students to read. The anticipation guide can be true or false statements, yes or no statements, or even in a likert scale type of format. I have included the true/false anticipation guide that I created for the story Henry’s Show and Tell below.

What is the Purpose of an Anticipation Guide?

Anticipation guides help students to establish a purpose for reading and they allow students to generate reflections and discussions after they have read. Anticipation guides help students to make predictions, anticipate what comes next, and find out if their prediction was right. Anticipation guides also get students excited about a new topic, help connect the reader to the text using prior knowledge, allow students to use analytic thinking skills, to develop interactive reading strategies, and to comment and discuss the texts and passages they have read.

How Do I Use an Anticipation Guide?

You can use an anticipation guide individually, in small groups, or even in a whole group setting. I usually use the guides as a pre-reading strategy in small groups, but after the students get the hang of it, whole group guides are great to use as well. Modeling and sharing your expectations with the students is key. First, I introduce the text or passage to the students, and then I bring in the anticipation guide. I model the entire process - sharing my statements, thinking aloud, and marking my selections on the guide. The students in my group follow me along the way, share their statements, and mark their selections as well. As we read the passage, we are continuing with these strategies. We are discussing the text together. When the text has been read, we revisit the anticipation guide. Were we able to verify our predications? Establishing the correct answers is not the point of an anticipation guide. Discussing, reflection, and making text connections are the most important things to listen for during the process.

How Do I Create an Anticipation Guide for Non-Fiction Text?

Identify any compelling facts, interesting information, and/or major concepts that you want the students to learn after reading. Create six to ten statements that will challenge the students’ thinking. You may want the statements to be true/false, yes/no, fact/opinion, or in a likert scale format.

How Do I Create an Anticipation Guide for Fiction Text?

Take events from the story and place them on a page out of order. Can the students predict what will happen next prior to reading? Have a spot for them to sequence before, after, and then be able to discuss and verify their predictions.

For a whole class anticipation guide activity, type up sentences, one or two at a time from the text you are about to read. Set a timer for thirty seconds. When the timer goes off, have the students walk around the room, pair up with another student, and share their sentences. Continue with pairing up until most of the children have met with one another. When they are finished with this task, can they figure out what the story is about? Who are the characters? Where does the story take place? Well, the students will have to read to find out!

Type up challenging vocabulary from the passage. Can the students figure out what the words mean? Can they make good predictions? Have them classify and sort the words. Which words do they think tell us about the character? Which words tell us about the setting? Which words tell us about the problem or solution? Read the story, discuss, and then verify.

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