Foundations of Language and Literacy · Junior Infants

Active learning ideas

Predicting and Inferring

Active learning works for predicting and inferring because these skills require students to engage deeply with text and images. When children interact with stories through debate, discussion, and creation, they practice using evidence to support their ideas. This approach builds confidence in their ability to make thoughtful guesses rather than random ones.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• NCCA: Primary - Comprehension
• NCCA: Primary - Reading

• 15–20 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Formal Debate
• 20 min · Small Groups

Formal Debate: The Mystery Cover

Show only the cover of a new book. Divide the class into small groups to discuss what they think the story is about. Each group must present one piece of 'evidence' from the picture to support their guess.

What do you see on the cover of this book?

Facilitation Tip

During Structured Debate: The Mystery Cover, model how to point to specific parts of the cover to justify predictions.

What to look for

Show students the cover of a new book. Ask: 'What do you see on the cover? What do you think this story might be about?' Record their predictions and the clues they mention.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

Activity 02

• Think-Pair-Share
• 15 min · Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: The Cliffhanger

Stop reading at a crucial moment in a story. Ask students to think of what the character will do next. They share with a partner and then 'vote' on the most likely outcome as a class.

What do you think this story might be about?

Facilitation Tip

For Think-Pair-Share: The Cliffhanger, provide sentence starters like 'I think...because I see...' to scaffold peer discussions.

What to look for

After reading a page with a character showing a strong emotion, ask: 'How can you tell [character's name] is feeling sad/happy/angry? What picture clues helped you know?' Encourage students to point to specific details in the illustration.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Activity 03

• Gallery Walk
• 20 min · Whole Class

Gallery Walk: Prediction Posters

Place three different 'possible endings' (drawn or written) around the room. Students walk to the ending they think is most likely and explain to the others at that station why they chose it.

How can you tell what a character is feeling just by looking at the pictures?

Facilitation Tip

In Gallery Walk: Prediction Posters, assign each pair a colored marker so you can track which groups contributed which ideas.

What to look for

Give each child a small piece of paper. Ask them to draw one clue from a familiar story's cover and write one sentence predicting what the story is about based on that clue.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Start by modeling your own thinking aloud as you make predictions, explicitly naming the clues you use. Avoid accepting answers that don't reference the text or images, and instead ask students to return to the evidence. Research shows that young children benefit from repeated practice with the same type of prediction task, so revisit these skills often with different stories.

Successful learning looks like students using clues from the story to form logical predictions and explain their thinking clearly. They should connect their ideas to specific details in the text or illustrations. Small-group discussions help them refine their understanding through peer feedback.

---

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Structured Debate: The Mystery Cover, watch for students who dismiss predictions they disagree with as 'wrong.'

  Prompt them to say, 'I agree with your prediction because you saw..., but I thought...because I noticed...' to model respectful disagreement and logical reasoning.

• During Gallery Walk: Prediction Posters, watch for students who make predictions without referencing the cover clues.

  Have them return to their poster and add an arrow pointing to the specific part of the cover that supports their idea, using the visual evidence they discussed in pairs.

---

Methods used in this brief

• Formal Debate
• Think-Pair-Share
• Gallery Walk