A teacher shares how the time-testedtool of Anticipation Guides

helped her students comprehend themes

Getting to tHeart of a

To downloadKaren E.

Mitchell's sampleAnticipation Guidefor Hatchet, go towww.TeachingK-8.com

BY KAREN E. MITCHELL

W hlle listening in on a small-group dis-cussion of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen(Atheneum, 1987), I was dismayed to

hear my fourth-grade students agree that thestory was about nothing more than a "kid whocrashes in the wilderness." Was that all theytook from this multifaceted tale? Surely, living inour Colorado community that had been impact-ed by the largest forest fire in state history, the2002 Hayman fire, they would have more to sayabout survival in the wilderness. What did theircomments reveal about their level of compre-hension?

Merging knowledge. While many teachersteach comprehension strategies by concentrat-ing on isolated skills, often in the form of work-sheet drills, comprehension is actually an ac-tive, constructive process that occurs before,during and after reading a particular selection.In order to comprehend reading material, read-ers must merge the knowledge they alreadyown, often referred to as prior knowledge, withthe information they are reading.

Students who are able to activate their priorknowledge of the concepts about which they arereading remember more than do students withlittle or no prior knowledge. As teachers, then,we must help our students - particularly, strug-

Karen £ Mitchell is an eletnetitary school teacher who holds aMaster's degree iti Curriculutn and Development She lives inWoodland Park, CO-

gling readers - tri^er their prior knowledgebefore reading so that they can concentratetheir reading effort towards merging their knowl-edge with the new information and ideas theyencounter.

When students link new information to priorknowledge, their interest and curiosity are moti-vated. Readers are motivated to continue read-ing a selection if they are searching for answersto questions they've formulated in their minds.While identifying noteworthy information innonfiction texts is relatively easy for most stu-dents, particularly if the text is well-structured,students often have difficulty identifying thethemes in fictional selections. Yet, the theme isthe heart of a story. How can we help our stu-dents activate prior knowledge, set a purposefor reading and identify a story's themes? I usean Anticipation Guide.

Predict and connect. Developed in 1986 byJ.E. Readence, the Anticipation Guide relies onprediction to make connections that lead tocomprehension. This organizer guides studentsto reflect on carefully constructed statementsthat will help them link their prior knowledgeand preconceived ideas to the information theywill read. In addition to setting a purpose forreading, the Anticipation Guide also promotesinterest and encourages higher-level thinking. A

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Create your own Anticipation GuideBefore presenting a fictional selection to students, identifythe major themes (or the important information in a non-fiction selection). Then follow these steps:

1Write 3-10 statements that will cause students to eval-uate their beliefs and challenge them to analyze

those beliefs. (For younger students, write simple state-ments on chart paper and discuss them as a whole group.)2 Create columns in which students may record their

personal responses to each statement. Students canrespond to statements with yes-no, true-false, agree-dis-agree or likely-unlikely options. You may want to includegradations for themes that are particularly complex or forwhich students may respond differently depending uponthe circumstance or situation.

3 Before reading the selection, have students react tothe statements by checking the appropriate column. It

often helps, particularly with younger students, to readeach statement aloud prior to responding in order to clar-ify any misconceptions or ambiguities.

4 Allow students time to read the selection to confirm ordiscredit their responses. As a variation, you can also

have your students record how they believe major charac-ters feel about the statements In the Anticipation Guide.5 Give students opportunities to discuss or respond to

their beliefs about the theme(s) as it relates to thestory being read. You may want to stage debates, conductsmall-group discussions or create individual projects tohelp students respond to the theme(s). The AnticipationGuide can serve as a starting point for follow-up activities.

very versatile tool, I use the Anticipation Guidebefore, during and after reading.

Make it personal. I find an AnticipationGuide is most effective In areas where studentshave some preconceived notions relating to theconcepts and themes presented. Students, par-ticularly in older grades, have thoughts andideas about most themes they will encounter inliterature. The statements in the AnticipationGuide are created to support and contrast anauthor's ideas with students' belief systems.While students may disagree with how a pro-tagonist feels about or reacts to a theme in astory, they are still thinking about and reactingto the theme on a personal level, leading togreater comprehension.

Some themes, such as terrorism and home-lessness, are naturally more complex than oth-ers, yet students can still respond to thesethemes. Although readers expect the protago-nist's problem to reach some kind of resolution,they understand that a theme or issue bi^erthan the character's immediate problem may nothave resolution. The Anticipation Guide serves toconnect a student to the reading selection, not toforce students to resolve all the uncertainty theymay experience when considering the theme.

The difference a guide makes. In develop-ing an Anticipation Guide for Hatchet, 1 choseeight statements to guide students to examinesome prominent themes from the story, includingkeeping family secrets, surviving in nature andpersonal growth. After using this AnticipationGuide the next school yecir, I was thrilled to over-hear a student say the following: "I think that thestory is about learning to adapt to your environ-ment, not just the outdoors, but the people youlive with, too. If you exi>ect them to change foryou, you are going to get really frustrated." I thinkhe got it! 4'

internetTopic: Hatchet Book Study1 Gary Paulsen; www.wefaenglishteacher.com/paulsen.html This

rich resource has lesson plans and activities for all ages. Plans include anintegrated unit and a PowerPoint guide for creating a survival kit.

2 Teacher CyberGuide - Hatchet www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/hatch/hatchettg.htm This lesson plan contains language arts contentstandards, student activities and web resources for a study of the book.

3 Hatchet, www.mce.k12tn.net/survival/hatchet/hatchet.htmA well-organized resource divided by book chapter. Each chapter categoryhas online (and printable) questions for your book study, activities that tieinto the chapter themes, writing lessons and vocabulary activities.

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