Anticipation Guide Learning Strategy

An anticipation guide is a comprehension strategy that is used before reading a passage or viewing a movie, to activate students’ prior knowledge, build curiosity about a new topic, and set a purpose for reading the text or viewing the movie. Before reading, students listen to or read several statements about key concepts presented in the text or the BrainPOP ELL movie. The students check whether they agree or disagree with the statements based on their prior knowledge.

Here is an idea about how to use an anticipation guide:

1. Write four to six statements about key ideas in the text or movie, some true and some false.

2. In the “Before” column, instruct students to mark if they agree or disagree with the statements. Emphasize that the idea is to make predictions about what they are going to read or see. It doesn’t matter if their answers are right or wrong.

3. Revisit the “After” column after students have read the material or seen the movie. Students can discuss the activity as a class or with a partner.