Making Predictions

Whether you realize it or not, you are always making guesses about what you will encounter next in a text.

Making predictions about where a text is headed is an important part of the understanding what you are reading.

It's alright to make wrong guesses about what will happen in a text--wrong guesses are just as much a part of the meaning making or understanding process of reading as right guesses are.

Listen as the teacher reads the following text and write down your predictions where required on loose leaf. It is important that you tell what evidence/support from the text made you think what would happen.

Little White Box -Roger Dean Kiser “What is Mrs. Mathers talking about?” I asked the nurse at the front desk of the nursing home where I had been working for about a week. “I don’t know. She has been here for about two weeks. The family knows she won’t live for another month, so they chose to place her here. She goes on and on about a little white plastic box,” the nurse replied. “Just get her dressed for bed and forget about her ramblings,” she instructed.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. Every day I went to work, Mrs. Mathers chattered on about the little white box. She’d constantly lie in bed with her hands partially covering her face. When I moved her hands to wash them, tears rolled down her cheeks. “Before I die. My little white box. Please,” she said out loud. “Mrs. Mathers, I don’t know what you mean,” I’d tell her.

Every day it was the same routine. No matter what I said to her, I could just not understand what she was talking about. Several times during the next week, the doctor was called to attend to her. After he left, I went in to make sure she was comfortable. “My house. My little white box,” she said, over and over.

Make a prediction with support. Support means what clues from what you read made you make that prediction Write your prediction on your loose leaf correctly labeling it as ‘Prediction/Support 1’

One day when I was about to get off work, I walked up to the desk, pulled out Mrs. Mathers’ chart and wrote down her last known address. I drove the ten kilometers or so until I located the house. When I arrived there was an estate sale going on, with people everywhere. I walked around inside the house for about ten minutes, looking at what had been tagged for sale. As I entered the dining room, I saw a gentleman wrapping various items and stuffing them into cardboard boxes.

Sitting on the edge of the table was a little white plastic box. “Excuse me. By any chance did you buy this little white box?” I asked him. “I bought everything in this room.” “Could I look inside this little box?”

“Sure. There’s nothing in there of any value,” he told me. Slowly I opened the box and looked inside. “Oh, dear God!” I said to myself. “Can I have this box?” I asked the man. “Not worth nothin’ to me,” he said. I ran out of the house as fast as I could, and I headed back to the nursing home. When I arrived, I walked into Mrs. Mather’s room. “Mrs. Mathers, it’s me, Roger. Look what I got.”

Slowly she opened her eyes, then started to shake as she reached out and took the little white box from my hand. “Water,” she said. I walked over to the sink, and I got her a cup of water, then I just stood there.

“Thank you, dear,” she said. “You are very welcome,” I replied, as I patted her hand. I stood watching her as she removed the contents of the box. I nodded so she would know that I finally understood that she was a fine lady. Then, like a gentleman, I bowed my head and left her room.

Make a prediction with support. Write it on your loose leaf correctly labeling it as ‘Prediction/Support 2’

When I returned to work the next day, I learned that Mrs. Mathers had passed away during the night. Of all my years of working in nursing homes, although there were many deaths, I only attended two funerals. One was that of Mrs. Mathers. I stood by the casket for more than an hour as many people filed past.

Last chance to make a prediction with support. Write it on your loose leaf correctly labeling it as ‘Prediction/Support 3’

I could not count the times I heard her friends say, “Jane looks at least twenty years younger with her dentures in.”

Were your predictions correct? Did it matter whether they were wrong or right? Predicting is an in-head experience that helps you understand as you read. Always remember this strategy!

Your task as you read today is to make one prediction about what will happen next in your book Record it on the ‘Prediction ThinkMark’ Just before reading is over today, confirm your prediction on the ThinkMark Hand the ThinkMark in