This anticipation guide template helps you prepare that second kind of discussion. Start with the concept you want students to examine, then write a statement and find the passage evidence you will use to revisit it. The worked example includes a short original passage, four statements, and a separate teacher preparation map.
Choose the ideas before filling the worksheet
The fictional school passage is deliberately short:
S1. A shallow basin planted beside the school receives water running off the roof.
S2. The soil in the basin allows some of this water to soak into the ground.
S3. An overflow pipe carries excess water from the basin to a drain.
S4. The garden needs weeding and checks to keep its inlet clear.
For this passage, the teaching focus is where water enters, what happens to it, and what maintenance the garden needs. These are the ideas the statements should bring into the discussion.
The Virginia Department of Education's anticipation-guide procedure, on printed page 135, begins with selecting major concepts. It recommends four to six statements that invite students to examine beliefs and misconceptions, followed by discussion and reading for evidence.
The four statements below form an original preparation example. They describe the garden in this passage; they are not a substitute for information about a real school's drainage system.
Repair a weak prompt
Choose Compare statements in the example to inspect this revision:
| Draft prompt | Problem | Revised statement |
|---|---|---|
| What date did the school open its rain garden? | It asks for an isolated detail, and the supplied passage gives no date. | All the water entering the rain garden stays there. |
The revised statement lets students explain where they think the water goes. After reading, they can test the word “all” against S3. A disagreement has something specific to turn on: the overflow pipe.
Keep a statement focused on one idea. “The garden keeps all the water and never needs care” would mix water movement with maintenance. A learner could disagree with one half and agree with the other, leaving you unsure which idea their response addresses.
Map each statement to evidence and a discussion stop
The teacher preparation map makes the whole set visible before class:
| Statement | Idea to discuss | Passage evidence | Suggested stop |
|---|---|---|---|
| All incoming water stays in the garden. | Whether water can leave the basin. | Contradicted by S3: excess water leaves through an overflow pipe. | After S3: ask what “all” would require. |
| Some water soaks into the ground. | Water movement through the soil. | Supported by S2. | After S2: ask which words identify that route. |
| A planted garden needs no upkeep. | Planting versus continued maintenance. | Contradicted by S4: weeding and inlet checks are needed. | After S4: identify the two maintenance actions. |
| Roof runoff enters the basin. | Where this garden's incoming water comes from. | Supported by S1. | After S1: trace the water from roof to basin. |
Select a statement in the example to inspect its purpose, evidence, and stop point. Teacher key reveals the supplied evidence map separately from the blank learner response sheet.
This key is available to anyone using the example page; hiding it behind a button does not make it private. Prepare the student copy separately if you want to keep the key out of the activity.
Leave room for reasons before and after reading
The learner sheet needs space for a before-reading position and reason, followed by an after-reading position and passage evidence. You can include Not sure yet so a learner can explain uncertainty without making an arbitrary choice.
Before reading, ask students with different positions to explain their reasons. During reading, use the map to locate the relevant sentence. Afterward, let students retain or revise their position and identify the words that informed it.
A student might disagree with “all incoming water stays” because of evaporation. That is a reason to discuss, but the passage's explicit evidence is the overflow pipe in S3. Keep the question about what this text establishes distinct from a broader science discussion.
Make a guide for your own passage
Create one complete, self-contained HTML anticipation guide.
Learner group and topic: [FILL IN]
Original or permitted passage with sentence IDs: [PASTE]
Major concepts to discuss: [LIST]
Four to six proposed statements: [PASTE]
Checked teacher evidence for each statement: [PASTE]
Discussion or read-aloud stop points: [PASTE]
Build a teacher preparation map with statement, teaching purpose,
supporting or contradictory passage evidence, and discussion stop.
Flag a statement that the passage cannot resolve; do not invent evidence.
Keep each statement focused on one idea. Show proposed repairs of weak
literal or compound statements separately for my review.
Include a separate blank learner sheet with before-reading position
and reason, after-reading position, and passage evidence. Include
Not sure yet. Preserve the original response when adding a revision.
Do not invent student responses or automatically grade free text.
Provide statement selection, a weak-versus-revised comparison,
and a separate teacher-key reveal. Explain that a revealed key is
publicly available in this page. Preserve typed learner notes when
switching views and ask before resetting them. Keep notes only in
the open page; do not claim saved or submitted classroom work.
Make the key information readable at 360px with no horizontal page
scrolling. Use labeled keyboard-accessible controls, body text of at
least 16px, inline CSS and JavaScript, and no external dependencies.
Return the complete HTML.
Read every statement against the actual passage. Remove a statement that depends on a fact you did not supply, or give students the additional reading they would need to examine it.
Review the statement set with a colleague
Ask a colleague which statement is likely to produce a useful disagreement and which one merely repeats a sentence. That conversation can change the set before you make the class copy.
If you prepare the guide as HTML, use NOS to revise the static statement wording while looking at the page. A colleague can review the set through a shared link. When you correct the saved preparation copy, the existing active link opens the corrected wording.
Keep the teacher map and learner activity clearly separated when you distribute the lesson. The student copy should give learners room to explain their own reasons before they see yours.