This is an activity you can do with students before they read or listen to a challenging chapter, poem, or text. If you know they will encounter some advanced words, this is an engaging and maybe a bit sneaky way to introduce the vocabulary.
I call it “Playful Predictions” and it combines a fun prediction activity with a quick presentation of new vocabulary.
HOW IT WORKS:
(1) Display a slide with 6 – 10 vocabulary words from the reading that may be new to students. I’ve created a free template for this (see below).
(2) Explain that they will try to predict what will happen, or what they will be reading, based on the words presented on the slide.
(3) Before making the predictions, ask students if they are familiar with the words. Challenge them to define each word and then click on the word to see a dictionary definition.
(4) Once everyone is clear on what the words mean, have students make predictions that incorporate a majority of the words.
In my experience, after doing this activity, students are highly motivated to read! They want to see if their predictions are even slightly close!
I first created this template for the Delightful Deep Dive into The Search for Delicious, a novel unit for 3rd-grade GT. There are many words used in the novel that would be totally unfamiliar to students. The activity combines Kelly Gallagher’s Word Scramble Prediction with a presentation of new vocabulary. Even if students know some of the words, they can be challenged to put a definition into words and then check their wording against a dictionary’s. Writing a proper definition is a challenge in itself.
MAKE YOUR OWN COPY OF THE TEMPLATE HERE
If you try this out with your students, I’d love to hear how it goes! Would you share your experience and leave a comment below? Also, feel free to share about the pre-reading strategies you use with students.