Making Predictions: 1st Grade Read Aloud

Hello, friends! Six weeks into the school year, we have hit the ground running and read-aloud has quickly become one of our favorite moments of the day. Today I wanted to share about one of my favorite books for teaching and modeling Making Predictions as a reading strategy - Duck on a Bike

by David Shannon.

Last week our weekly read-aloud theme is a David-Shannon author study. I pulled all of our read-alouds and comprehension lessons from our themed bookshelf, some of them lesser-known Shannon creations. (To see other weekly bookshelf themes, you can search #1stgradebookshelf on Instagram.) Shannon makes a just-right bookshelf for my beginning-of-the-year readers with his bright illustrations, familiar characters, and kid-themed antics.

Only a few weeks into the year, making predictions is a just-right reading strategy for my emerging readers. Many of my friends still rely heavily on picture clues to make meaning and to decode texts. Making predictions allows readers to feel successful even with books they may not be ready to independently read, yet. Looking for a book to support this strategy, I pulled Shannon's Duck on a Bike

from our bookshelf- a silly narrative about a duck who shows off his bike-riding skills only to have his farm-animal friends join him later in the story.

The morning before our read-aloud, I quickly marked my two stopping points. Marking these stopping points (when the animals see all the abandoned bikes and the last page of the story), keeps read-alouds intentional and helps me focus on specific strategies that I want to model for students.

After reaching our first stopping point (Duck has shown all the farm animals how well he bikes and the animals see a group of abandoned bikes), I invited - "Friends, we know when you make a prediction you use the clues an author gives you in the words and the illustrations to make a guess about what might happen next. What do you think is going to happen next?"

I did not want students' predictions to rub-off on one another, so each friend received a coveted sticky note. This is the *first* time we have used sticky notes this year, and it was SO exciting! Students returned to their seats and recorded their predictions. As friends finished writing/sketching their predictions, they returned to the carpet and placed their sticky note on our anchor chart.

About 75% of my friends predicted that the animals were going to ride the abandoned bikes; a few others noticed the hungry goat and predicted that he was going to eat the bikes. A few other friends predicted a farm-animal stampede, animals being taken to the animal hospital, etc. For responses that seemed a little 'off' to me, I questioned - "What evidence did David Shannon give you to make your prediction?"

After all our friends made and shared predictions, we finished enjoying the story. We were so excited to see that the animals did ride the bikes (even the mouse got a turn), and the silly goat was eating a bike! Most of our predictions were proven correct, which was such a huge confidence builder for my friends.

We finished the book and found that one more prediction needed to be made. On the last page, Duck is standing face-to-grill with a tractor. It was the PERFECT chance to make one last prediction -"If David Shannon didn't end the book, what might have happened?"

Using this graphic organizer, I scaffolded my students with an "I think...because..." structure. While we have informally made predictions in guided reading and other read alouds, this is the first time I have asked students to write their ideas down. We are still early into the school year, and many of my friends still need sentence stems to organize their ideas.

This friend is one of my best illustrators and did an awesome job illustrating a parade of tractor-riding farm animals, sound-words and speech-bubbles included!

Duck on a Bike is such a simple book but a perfect one for making predictions. It's fast-paced, hilarious, and concludes with a perfect cliffhanger. Additionally, I could see a great class book coming out of Duck on a Tractor...who knows what our 1st-grade future will hold!
Until then friends, what are your go-to books for teaching students to make predictions? This is a skill we'll practice throughout the year, and I would love to hear your ideas!