Shared Reading: Prediction
To develop prediction skills during shared reading, building active engagement with texts.
- Framework: EYFS
- Unit: EYFS Literacy
- Learning area: Literacy
- Level: EYFS 3-4
Objectives
- Makes predictions during reading
- Uses picture clues
- Explains reasoning for predictions
- Checks predictions against text
Materials
- Carefully chosen picture books
- Prediction prompt cards
- Sticky notes for marking prediction points
- Think bubbles
Instructions
Choose books with clear prediction opportunities — stories with patterns, surprises, or cumulative structures work best ('Handa's Surprise', 'The Enormous Turnip', 'Peace at Last').
Before turning each page, pause and ask: 'What do you think will happen next? Look at the picture — any clues?' Give thinking time. Accept all predictions without judging.
After the page is revealed: 'Did your prediction match? Amara thought the bear would eat the porridge — and he did! You were right!' Or 'Interesting — you thought the fox would run away, but he hid! The story surprised us!'
Teach children to use clues: 'Good readers use clues to predict. The clues are in the pictures, in the pattern of the story, and in what we know about how stories work.'
Use 'think bubbles' — speech bubble shapes that children hold up with their prediction drawn or scribed inside. Visual predictions are as valid as verbal ones.
Over time, children begin to predict spontaneously: 'I think the mouse is going to trick the cat!' This shows internalised active reading behaviour.