Before Reading Strategy: Possible Sentences
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From Kylene Beers
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Rationale: This activity helps students make predictions about a reading and encourages them to
stay engaged while reading, AND it helps teachers judge their students prior knowledge about a
concept.
 Struggling readers do not automatically predict what a passage will be about, nor do they
notice things that trigger any prior knowledge they may have about a topic. They usually
just open a book, look at the words, and start turning pages.
 This activity helps curb these passive reading habits by helping students make
predictions, realize that they do already know some things about the topic, see
relationships between elements in a text, make inferences, and form images in their heads
as they read.
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Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Choose a text whose subject has elements to which students have already been
exposed. In other words, this might not work so well with an article on
astrophysics, but you never know.
 While reading the text, circle any Tier 1 words that you think will help students
make accurate predictions about the content. They need to be words kids know so
they can create intelligent sentences.
 Tier 1 words are basic words that most students will know at their grade
level
 Tier 2 words are abstract, academic words that occur frequently but are
found in specific places like school and the work place
 Tier 3 words are content-specific words that occur mainly in
academic/professional situations and are not used in normal conversation
 Beers suggests to then use the following chart/grid to pick out words that fall into
the categories. This helps to get a good range of words and also helps eliminate
words. You want 10-15 MAX for this activity.
People/Characters Setting
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Problem/Conflict Outcomes
During the lesson
 Have students number their papers 1-5 and then partner them up
 Preface the activity: “We are going to read an article/story/passage about x, and in
order to prep for this, we’re going to make some predictions about the article.”
 Post the words in a random order
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Give pairs time to come up with 5 sentences using the words.
 They should only use 3 or 4 words in each sentence, not try to get all the
words in one sentence.
 If applicable, remind them that the words come from a non-fiction article,
so the sentences need to be believable (this is VERY important).
 Both students need to write the sentences they create.
 When time is up, have students share out their sentences.
 While they share, teacher types or writes the sentences on the board.
 Once sentences are up, move on to question generation
 Model how to ask a question from the sentences. Then, add your question
under the list of sentences.
 Have students turn back to their partners and come up with some questions
that the sentences raise for them OR as a class, have volunteers offer
questions.
 Add each question to the list, under the generated sentences.
 Reading Time
 Pass out the text.
 Have students number the paragraphs.
 As you read the text (as a whole, in pairs, independently, however),
students find evidence in the text to either support or refute the sentences
they created.
 If they find that their sentences are true, they mark them as correct. If they
find they are wrong, they fix them in whatever way is necessary. In both
instances, have them mark the paragraph number in which they found the
correct information.
 You will find that your students stay more focused on the reading because
they want to know if they “guessed” correctly or not!
Extentions/Variations
 This can segue into a research lesson. Some of their questions will probably not be
answered just in reading the passage. So teach them how to find the answers: the “right”
way to do an internet search, library skills, etc.
 Instead of having them make up sentences together, have students turn and talk with their
partners about the words and then turn back and write their own questions quietly.
 If you do this near the end of class, you can project the words, have them turn and talk,
and then go home and write their own sentences in anticipation of reading during the next
class period.
 This is similar to another Kylene Beer’s activity called “Probable Passages,” wherein
students group the words into the same categories you did, make a prediction statement
based on their groupings, and then generate a few questions based on their thoughts.