What is an anticipation guide?
Anticipation guides are used as a pre-reading strategy to activate student prior knowledge, and assess what information student's bring to this learning experience. This is also a good way to get students familiar with the content they are going to learn and I also believe it is a good way to create enthusiasm prior to reading. Anticipation guides concentrate on the important points and big ideas in the reading. The guide is also a channel in which students can write about what they know and do not know about the subject.
Why does this strategy work?
This strategy works because it focuses student attention to what is being taught and it gives students an opportunity to personalize the learning and connect it to their lives in a meaningful way. It identifies the mmajor concepts being taught and it gives students a chance to add their own learning questions and identifies any misconceptions students may still have about the content. Critical thinking is encouraged when using this strategy.
How do anticipation guides work?
The most important piece to the anticipation guide is for the teacher to choose the major concepts that he/she intends for the students to learn.
Then, four to six major concepts will be defined within statements that encourage student responses. The statements should target questions such as:
What are student belief(s) about...?
What controversial ideas may arise during reading?
What misconceptions do students hold about the subject matter?
Students then get a copy of the anticipation guide and are asked to answer the questions and provide support for their answers.
Each statement will be discussed with the whole class. At this point, the teacher and students should have a good idea of what they are going to learn about, why they're going to learn it, and what it means for them in their own lives.
What does an anticipation guide look like?
The passage I chose came from the business math book that I've been using for the SCATP Part 1. I chose this passage (Business Math, 2006, pg. 131) because it is an introduction to the unit and a good way to introduce the material.
Questions:
Do you think that everyone holds credit cards?
Do you want a credit card? Why or why not?
Are credit cards easy to get and easy to keep?
How many people do you that have one more more credit card?
Do you have to pay a credit card back?
Is a credit card a loan?
