"Predictable books make use of rhyme, repetition of words, phrases, sentences and refrains, and such patterns as cumulative structure, repeated scenes, familiar cultural sequences, interlocking structure and turn-around plots. These stories invite children to make predictions or guesses about words, phrases, sentences, events and characters that could come next in the story." Mary Jett Simpson, in Reading Resource Book
The key to using real literature at the very beginning of formal reading instruction is in using books that are predictable. In an article by Lynn K. Rhodes (1981) titled “I can read! Predictable books as resources for reading and writing instruction,” she discusses the characteristics of predictable books. They are as follows:
- Predictable books have a repetitive pattern.Children can quickly follow and read along with the book after the first few pages.
- They are about concepts that are very familiar to most early readers. The children can easily identify with the story line and the characters.
- There is a good match between the text and its illustrations. This is an important key in a book’s readability. In the selection from Brown Bear, Brown Bear above, the pictures that accompany the text essentially tell the story for the child after he has become familiar with the pattern.
- Many predictable books use elements of rhyme and rhythm to increase the overall predictability of the book. Once the child catches the rhythm or the rhyming pattern, it enhances his ability to predict what will come next.
- Many also use a cumulative pattern as the story progresses. A familiar example of a story that has a cumulative pattern is The Gingerbread Man where each of the fugitive cookie’s pursuers is added to the narrative as the story reaches the climax.
- Stories that are familiar to a child also enhance their predictability. It is easy for most children to predict what the wolf will say in The Three Little Pigs because of their prior experiences with the story.
- Familiar sequences are often characteristic of predictable books. Eric Carle, in his book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, uses two sequences that are familiar to most young children: numbers and the days of the week:
On Monday he ate through one apple.
But he was still hungry.
On Tuesday he ate through two pears,
but he was still hungry.
