5th Grade · Reading · RL.5.1

Prediction Lesson Plan for 5th Grade

A ready-to-teach prediction lesson for 5th Grade, built around finding the clues that support a prediction, checking it against what happens, and revising it when a new clue appears. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 47 minutes

Learning objective

Find the clues an author gives about what happens next
Use character and setting clues to make a prediction
Tell a strong clue from a weak one

Materials

Make and Check Predictions in a Story About a Stranded Hiker
Find the Clues That Point to What Happens Next
Change Your Prediction as the Story Goes On
Make and Check Predictions About a Sound in the Attic
Use Character Clues to Predict a Choice
Was the Prediction Right? Check Each Guess
Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples

Lesson steps

1. Build the background (5 min)
Introduce prediction in plain language and connect it to a book the class already knows. Write the key term where students can see it all lesson. For 5th Grade, one clear sentence beats a full definition.
2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)
Read a short passage aloud. Stop twice and narrate your own thinking about prediction: what you noticed in the text and what made you notice it. Students are learning the move, not the answer.
3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)
Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "Make and Check Predictions in a Story About a Stranded Hiker". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.
5. Share and close (5 min)
Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate prediction one final time in the students' own words, not yours.

Check for understanding

Ask each student to point to the evidence in the text for one of their answers. A student who has the right answer but cannot find the line has not yet learned prediction.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild prediction with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own prediction problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand prediction.

Skills covered in this lesson

Prediction clues · Check and revise predictions · Making predictions

Questions teachers ask about teaching prediction

How is a prediction different from a guess?

A prediction rests on a clue from the story plus what the reader already knows. A guess has nothing behind it. Each sheet asks children to copy the clue first and then write the prediction, so every prediction has a reason.

Why do some stories stop partway through?

So children commit to a prediction before they know the ending. On the stop and predict, check and revise sheets, have your child fill in the Stop and Predict box before turning the page or reading on. The next part lets them check.

What if my child's prediction was wrong?

That is fine and expected. Many sheets ask children to circle whether the prediction was right, partly right or wrong, then name the clue that pointed to the ending or changed their mind. Spotting a clue they missed is the skill that matters.

Do the 5th grade prediction worksheets have answer keys?

Yes. All 16 sheets have an answer key. Predictions differ from child to child, so the key gives sample clues and predictions, fixed answers for the multiple choice questions and other answers the story supports.