Anticipation guides are a powerful pre-reading strategy in education designed to activate students’ prior knowledge, foster curiosity about new topics, and assess comprehension after learning. This guide will explore the concept in detail, outlining its benefits, implementation, and adaptations for diverse learners and subject areas.
What is an Anticipation Guide?
An anticipation guide is a comprehension strategy employed before and after reading or learning new material. Prior to engaging with the text, students respond to a series of statements that challenge or support their existing beliefs and understanding about key concepts. This serves to pique their interest and establish a purpose for reading. After reading, the guide is revisited to evaluate comprehension, address misconceptions, and explore new insights and connections.
Why Use Anticipation Guides?
Anticipation guides offer several key benefits in the educational setting:
- Stimulate Interest: They ignite student curiosity and provide a reason for engaging with the material.
- Prediction and Verification: They encourage students to make predictions, anticipate the text’s content, and later verify those predictions.
- Connect Prior Knowledge: They bridge the gap between new information and existing knowledge, enhancing understanding and retention.
- Active Learning: They transform passive reading into an active process of questioning, predicting, and confirming.
How to Implement an Anticipation Guide
Constructing the Guide
The creation of an anticipation guide should be straightforward, especially for younger learners. Typically, it involves crafting four to six statements about key concepts within the text. These statements should be a mix of true and false assertions, designed to provoke thought and discussion. Include columns next to each statement for students to indicate their agreement or disagreement, often labeled “Agree” or “Disagree.” An additional column should be included for revisiting the guide after reading.
Modeling the Process
Introduce the text and the anticipation guide to the students. Demonstrate how to respond to the statements and mark the corresponding columns.
- Read and Respond: Read each statement aloud and ask students to individually consider whether they agree or disagree.
- Facilitate Discussion: Encourage discussion by asking students to explain their reasoning and justifications. The focus should be on sharing existing knowledge and making informed predictions, rather than seeking correct answers at this stage.
- Engage with the Text: Have students read the text individually or read it aloud as a class. If reading aloud, pause at points that relate to the statements in the guide.
- Revisit and Reflect: After reading, revisit each statement and discuss how the text supports or refutes their initial responses. Encourage students to correct misconceptions and explain how their understanding has evolved.
Examples in Practice
Several resources provide practical examples of anticipation guides:
- Children’s Literature: Anticipation guides can be effectively used with picture books to engage younger learners and spark their curiosity.
- Reading Universe: This resource offers diverse strategies to activate background knowledge and pique student interest in various texts.
Differentiating Instruction with Anticipation Guides
Anticipation guides can be adapted to meet the needs of diverse learners:
- Second Language Learners: Conduct the anticipation guide activity orally to support comprehension.
- Varying Reading Skills: Modify the number of statements or assign different reading passages on the same topic based on reading levels.
- Younger Learners: Use simpler sentence structures to ensure that students focus on the content rather than the complexity of the language. For example, change “Ringworm and athlete’s foot are caused by fungi” to “Fungi cause ringworm and athlete’s foot.”
- Visual Cues: Use color-coding to differentiate between the “before” and “after” columns, providing visual support for students.
Application Across Content Areas
Anticipation guides are versatile tools that can be used across various subjects:
- Science: Introduce scientific concepts and vocabulary, prompting students to think critically about scientific phenomena.
- Social Studies: Explore historical events and social issues, encouraging students to consider different perspectives and challenge preconceived notions.
Research Supporting Anticipation Guides
Research supports the effectiveness of anticipation guides as a learning strategy:
- Duffelmeyer, F. (1994). Effective Anticipation Guide statements for learning from expository prose. Journal of Reading, 37, 452-455.
- Head, M. H., and Readence, J. E. (1992). Anticipation guides: Using prediction to promote learning from text. In E.K. Dishner, T. W. Bean, J. E. Readence and D. W. Moore (Eds), Reading in the content areas: Improving classroom instruction (3rd ed., pp. 227-233). Dubugue: Kendall/Hunt.
- Wood, K. D., D. Lapp, J. Flood, and D. B. Taylor. (2008). Guiding Readers Through Text: Strategy Guides for New Times. 2nd ed. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Conclusion
Anticipation guides are a valuable tool for educators seeking to enhance student engagement, activate prior knowledge, and promote deeper comprehension. By implementing this strategy effectively, teachers can create a more interactive and meaningful learning experience for all students.
