Chapter 14 page 313
a lucky guess. Second, Damian has probably benefitted from actually explaining his thinking. As we have
learned, explanations promote memory and understanding, so explaining his thinking will help Damian
solidify his own understanding of how to make good predictions. Finally, other students in the class who do
not yet know how to make good predictions will benefit from hearing Damian’s explanation. When students
who do not know how to generate a good prediction simply hear Damian’s final prediction, without an
explanation, they will not grasp how Damian thought of that prediction. But when Damian explains how he
generated his prediction, they will now have a better idea of how to make predictions on their own. They
may now understand that one way to make a prediction is to consider what topics have been covered, and
then predict that a topic not yet covered could be next. Damian has provided a model, much like a
teacher’s model.
Consider now how the teacher might respond to a student who makes a poor prediction.
Transcript Analysis
Teacher: Before we turn the page,
let’s predict what the next
section will be about.
Briana?
Briana: Maybe...it’ll be about
koalas.
Teacher: Explain your thinking there.
Briana: I know there are koalas in
Australia, and the chapter
hasn’t talked about them
yet.
The teacher again focuses on the target strategy of making
predictions.Briana makes a prediction without explaining her thinking
(that is, without making her thinking visible).
The teacher asks Briana to make her thinking visible.
Briana explains her thinking.Teacher: Do you think that the
authors would start right in
with koalas, or would they
start talking about animals
first?
The teacher asks a question to encourage Briana to think
about more general topics.Briana: [Pause] Probably, first they
talk about all the animals,
and give koalas as an
example of animals. So
maybe the next section
would be about animals.
Briana sees what the teacher is getting at, and she revises
her prediction based on the teacher’s question.Teacher: Why do you think that
animals might come next?
The teacher asks Briana to explain her thinking further.Briana: This section is about the
land and climate, so the next
section could be about plans
and animals that live on the
land.
Briana has now given a good explanation for a good
prediction.By asking Briana more than once to explain her thinking, the teacher gains insights into Briana’s thinking that
enables the teacher to decide how to give hints to Briana. (We will discuss giving hints in a later section.)
Teachers can encourage students to make their thinking visible when students are participating in
class discussions, when the teacher is working individually with a student, and when the teacher is working
with a group of students. Teachers can also encourage students to make thinking visible to each other when
they work in groups. Teachers can instruct students that when they work in groups, they should regularly
ask each other to explain their thinking (Chinn, 2006; Chinn, O'Donnell, & Jinks, 2000).