Prepare: Read "The Storm" & make predictions

In our next session together, we'll be tackling a critical reading strategy called predictive analysis.

Predictive analysis requires us to behave like suspicious readers and make aggressive use of the sparse textual evidence to make predictions about the content and organization of a document. For many students using this strategy feels like a game. The attentive reading and the recognition of the beginning of patterns in a text students use to predict the content and trajectory of a piece trains students to think more critically.

You can use this strategy with any genre of reading. Textbooks, scholarly articles, background material, newspaper accounts, diaries, lab reports, and literature. We'll start with literature.

Discussion Directions

1. Read and annotate Kate Chopin's "The Storm."  You can find the PDF attachment linked below. Surprise! We're only giving you the first half of the story so you can practice using the power of predictions.  
2. Another page, another set of predictions: stop reading at the end of each page 1) to write down your predictions about what you expect to happen in the story and 2) to highlight the details or passages that helped you form those predictions.  
3. Post your thoughts below on just one of your predictions. Not so fast, though. Quote some evidence from the story to back up your thinking.  If your colleagues have already posted all of your predictions, you may discuss how another passage or detail from the story supports or undercuts one of the posted predictions.