Predicting is a fun way to make an educated guess about what will happen in our books. Making predictions also helps our critical thinking skills by helping us to justify our guesses by using evidence in the text through author clues and pictures. Predicting requires you to do two things: 1) use clues the author provides in the text, and 2) use what he/she knows from personal experience or knowledge. When readers combine these two things, they can make relevant, logical predictions.

It is important to make predictions before, during, and after reading. There are several different kinds of predictions that you can make!

• predict what the book will be about (Reader use titles and cover illustrations, etc.)

• predict the author’s purpose (Is the author trying to convince us of something? Does the author want to teach us something? etc.)

• predict future events in the book (Reader bases these predictions on previous events or character words and actions)

• predict why an author included a specific text feature (What does it teach us? What information does it help clarify?)

• predict what they will learn from the text or section within a text (Reader uses titles, headings, and subheadings to inform predictions)

• predict what would happen next at the end of the book if it were to continue

Making predictions helps set the stage for students to monitor their own comprehension. Making predictions naturally encourages the reader to want to continue reading in order to find out if their predictions were correct or not. By making predictions and then reading on to see if those predictions were correct helps to let the students know if their thinking was on the right track. Using the prediction strategy correctly, truly will result in comprehending the text more fully.

Information provided by www.classroomnook.com

Main Idea Vs. Theme

The main idea is what the book is mostly about. The theme is the message, lesson, or moral of a book. By asking crucial questions at before you read, while you read, and after you read a book, you can determine the main idea and theme of any book you are reading!

Questions to Determine Main Idea

• Before Reading:

  • Read the title.

  • What is the book about?

  • What is the topic?

• While Reading:

  • Look for and carefully read text features.

  • Is the book fiction or nonfiction?

  • Look for information, words, and pictures that are repeated.

• After Reading:

  • Think about the most important part of this topic.

  • What details or examples back up and support the main idea?

Questions to Determine Theme

• Before Reading:

  • Look back at the common theme topics.

  • Keep these in mind as you begin to read the book.

• While Reading:

  • Think: the theme may be stated or implied (suggested).

• After Reading:

  • How did the characters react to obstacles?

  • What important decisions did the characters make?

  • How did the characters grow or change, and what did they learn?

Information provided by https://witschicago.org/the-difference-between-main-idea-and-theme

Character Traits List & Examples

Character traits are the individual characteristics and qualities that make characters from books, stories, movies, plays, and other art forms come to life for readers.

The author doesn’t directly tell the reader what the character is like, which forces us to have to learn to piece it together by making inferences based on what the character says and does.

Values, Morals, and Beliefs Character Traits

• Honest

• Brave

• Compassionate

• Leader

• Courageous

• Unselfish

Physical and Emotional Character Traits

• Strong

• Tall

• Dark

• Light

Personality Character Traits

• Demanding

• Thoughtful

• Keen

• Happy

Just like real people, literary characters have behaviors, attitudes, traits, and beliefs that give them a unique personality. These can be surface characteristics, like personality or physical traits - or they can be deeply-held values and morals. Writers develop characters with myriad traits to help readers build empathy or antipathy, relate to the narrative, create realism, and develop various plot points and storylines

information provided by TeacherVision and The Teacher Next Door