ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUE 6
Sentence Stem Predictions
| Complexity involved in | |
| Planning | MODERATE |
| Developing Materials | MODERATE |
| Implementing in Class | LOW |
Description and Purpose
In this technique, the professor presents a partial sentence that is structured to prompt students to predict select aspects of the upcoming lecture. The professor may use several stems throughout the lecture to guide student prediction making. To make logical predictions prior to receiving new information, students must use information from previous lectures and their prior knowledge. Although students often enjoy what they see as a guessing activity, predicting requires moving beyond guessing and instead involves previewing the lecture content to anticipate what may happen in it.
Prediction helps students set a purpose for listening. As students make predictions, they are more likely to be invested in the content. Because Sentence Stem Predictions provide scaffolding for student learning, this technique should also improve student understanding. Sentence Stem Predictions provide professors with insight into student understanding about a topic. This technique can also reveal when and where students have misconceptions. When professors review student predictions, they can address in the moment any misconceptions or gaps in understanding.
Preparation
- Review your lecture plans and identify two to three potential places where it is possible for students to predict outcomes related to specific content.
- Prepare a list of sentence stems with phrases that will encourage students to make predictions at the different points during the lecture you have identified. The stems should be tailored to the lecture content. Here are some generic examples that can be adapted for a number of purposes:
- I think I will learn . . . because . . .
- I'll bet . . . because . . .
- I predict . . . because. . .
- I think . . . will happen because . . .
- X will happen if . . .
- I wonder if . . . because . . .
- I suppose . . . because . . .
- I imagine . . . because . . .
- Make sure you can respond to the prompts yourself.
- Decide how you will integrate the Sentence Stem Predictions into the lecture presentation. If you have a slide deck, creating a slide with the stems that students record on their own paper is a useful approach. You could also consider Poll Everywhere slides. Alternately consider providing a handout that students fill in as you announce the stems, as shown in the following example.
Procedures
- Announce the activity and tell students when they will make predictions (e.g., before the lecture and once or twice during the lecture).
- Present the Sentence Stem Predictions and ask students to record their responses. Ask a few volunteers to share their answers.
- Proceed with the lecture.
- Continue the pattern of prediction followed by short lecture until you have completed your prompts.
| Video Lecture | Large Lecture |
| Provide students with a Sentence Stem Predictions worksheet that they complete while you go through the lecture. When preparing your video lecture, include times where you ask students to pause the video to complete the relevant section of the worksheet. Ask students to submit their completed worksheet as an assignment. Alternately intersperse a video lecture with quiz questions that ask students to make predictions. Finally, consider setting up as a short quiz in an LMS that opens in a new window. | Use individual classroom response systems (clickers) for students to submit their predictions or a live polling site such as Poll Everywhere. |
Examples
Constitutional Law (Lecture)
This on-site course involves the study of legal cases to understand essential principles of constitutional law. The professor uses case law to provide insight into how constitutional controversies are resolved and can influence subsequent case resolution. Because the case law helps judges, lawyers, and students predict the outcome of future cases, the professor decided to use Sentence Stem Predictions to have students make predictions as well.
In one lecture section on the subject of governmental intervention in cases of private property ownership, the professor introduced the case of Kelo v. City of New London. In this case, the government condemned private homes as part of redevelopment to sell to other investors. The professor provided a prompt so that students would consider the outcome of the case before she announced it:
- I predict
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- because
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
The professor collected the responses and noted that many students predicted that the outcome would be that the court would say no, that the government could not condemn the property. The professor announced that the court said yes because it is acceptable when the government is doing so for economic development. She provided the rationale for the students.
The professor then gave the students a hypothetical case involving governmental action to take private property and asked the students to predict the outcome by completing the following sentence stem:
- I predict
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- because
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
She used the technique several times throughout the lecture and noted that students' answers improved and that more students were answering the prompts correctly by the end of class than at the beginning. She believed that the Sentence Stem Predictions helped them to improve their understanding of the issue.
Introductory Physics (Large Lecture)
The professors of this large lecture course often asked students to predict what would happen during lecture demonstrations. They then asked students to record what had happened during the demonstration. They were not surprised that some of the students predicted incorrectly, but they were surprised that students observed the demonstration and then recorded it incorrectly. The professors were concerned that student prior knowledge, specifically misconceptions and lack of depth of understanding, were interfering with some of the students' learning.
The professors decided to use ALT 7: Guess and Confirm to test their hypothesis that inaccurate or insufficient prior knowledge was the problem. The professors measured student prior knowledge of a unit on introductory mechanics. They then asked students to predict the outcome of a lecture demonstration (“I believe x will happen because . . . .”). Then they asked students to record what they saw (“What actually happened was . . . .”). They scored the responses with a plus (correct) and a minus (incorrect). They found that students who understood the concepts prior to the demonstration were more likely to predict correctly and to remember the demonstration correctly afterward. They also found that students who observed the demonstration incorrectly were not likely to remedy the problem before a major test. That is, learning was contingent on a correct observation.
The professors determined that they needed to ensure that students had a good understanding of the concepts prior to participating in the interactive lecture demonstration. They decided to provide additional background readings coupled with ALT 4: Individual Readiness Assurance Tests in order to make sure students were sufficiently prepared to participate in the class activities.
Statistics (Video Lecture)
In this blended online statistics course, the professor was teaching a unit on making predictions. The professor created three short video lectures that were six to seven minutes each. Before releasing the first video, the professor asked students to complete a quiz with the following stem:
I believe I will learn about ________________________________in this lecture series.
Students submitted responses to the Sentence Stem Prediction, which he reviewed. He noticed that most had accurately guessed that they would learn how to predict events, but they did not link it to the specific number of times a certain action would happen.
He released the first video with an introductory note that responded to their first prompt and specified that the lecture was about the number of times an event would happen. At the end of the second video, he described a scenario in which Chelley had to take a multiple-choice test in a class she had not attended all semester. The test had forty questions and she would have to guess at each answer from four possible answers per question. He posted a Sentence Stem Prediction as follows:
I believe that Chelley will answer x questions correctly.
He noticed several of the students missed the question, but in an on-site class meeting, he focused on telling students how to solve the problem. At the end of the next video lecture, he posed a problem about a mother who was bringing two boxes of cookies and two boxes of cupcakes to a class party. Students would randomly select a box from which to get a treat. He posted a quiz with the following prompt:
I believe that x number of students will get a cookie.
Students seemed to engage with the videos, and he believed that they did so in part because of the Sentence Stem Prediction quizzes.
Variation and Extension
- Use graphic organizers to help students make predictions and possibly to adjust or confirm them.
| What I expected to happen | What actually happened |
Observations and Advice
Some students may be tempted to coast and answer with surface-level thoughts or even to say, “I don't know.” Inviting them to clarify why they think by asking “How do you know you're correct?” can help discourage the easy out.
Students should be as specific as possible about their predictions. Because this technique is more open-ended than prediction activities that have close-ended choices, this can be more challenging to accomplish. When you write your prompts for your specific lecture, try to tie them to something concrete, for example, by asking students to predict specific outcomes or tying the responses to a set of percentages.
Be sure that you integrate the “because” into the questions. You want students to think through their predictions and provide a rationale for them.
Key References and Resources
- Finley, T. (2014). Dipsticks: Efficient ways to check for understanding. Retrieved from www.edutopia.org/blog/dipsticks-to-check-for-understanding-todd-finley
- Marzano, R., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
- Wentzel, K. R., & Brophy, J. (2014). Motivating students to learn (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.